With a career spanning over 3 decades, Pickens has developed and delivered hardware solutions to facilitate affordable and responsive space access. He is an inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, innovator, and designer, primarily focused on aerospace solutions. Pickens has provided consulting services as a subject matter expert in commercial aerospace, propulsion, and product commercialization. He has served as a SME on hybrid and liquid propulsion systems and has done extensive work on valve design and repair. Pickens applies lean philosophies to develop creative solutions and innovative partnerships to provide responsive, low-cost products and services in the aerospace industry, specializing in the design, fabrication, and testing of propulsion hardware systems. He has designed liquid and hybrid rocket motors ranging from five to 375,000 pounds of thrust; led composite component design and manufacturing of rocket motor cases, nozzles, tanks, and other vehicle components; designed and constructed multiple test set-ups involving the use of advanced instrumentation, signal conditioning and data acquisition-related electronics; and designed and constructed rocket fluid control electronics, as well as specialized prototype test equipment and machinery. With proven experience in leading game changing commercial space propulsion technology development, Pickens most notably worked on SpaceShipOne, the $10 million Ansari X Prize winner, as the Lead Propulsion Developer. This effort included development of the main propulsion system as well as the RCS. Following the success of SpaceShipOne, Pickens founded Orion Propulsion, a Huntsville aerospace company, that received multiple Small Business awards and became AS9100-certified to build man-rated flight hardware. In 2009, with over 40 employees and $6.4 million in annual revenue, Orion was bought by Dynetics. Following the acquisition of Orion, Pickens’ next endeavor was the formation of Pickens Innovations, which supported such companies as Firefly, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit, Radian, and Bigelow Aerospace. Ultimately, Pickens moved to Teledyne Engineering as a SME in nitrous oxide with supporting applications used in the development of a hot air hypersonic wind tunnel. Ultimately, the lure of commercial space drove him back to his roots and he is now the President and CTO of Pickens Scientific.Specialties: Commercial Space; Product Design & Development; Valve Design/Repair; Liquid, Gaseous and Hybrid Propulsion; Design, Fabrication and Related Testing; Acoustic Igniters