Tim Pickens Email & Phone Number

Madison, Al, Us

As President and CTO of Pickens Scientific, Pickens brings a rich heritage of experience to the company. He is currently leading the development of a space-rated high voltage exciter that will support in-space propulsion ignition. Pickens is also leading the development of vacuum rated torch igniters and High Voltage Exciters for commercial rocket engines and thrusters. A terrestrial commercial version of these Exciters has been used to initiate the detonation of shock tubes designed to reduce soot in coal fire plants. Over 400 of these exciters have been fielded on detonation cleaning systems where they each operate daily creating over 10,000 shock events. PSI also has contracts supporting additional propulsion development initiatives.

Us

Chief Engineer on the Hot Air Tunnel(HAT) Program: Responsible for technically leading an amazing development team to create a Mach 6 Wind Tunnel capable of generating very hot non-vitiated air using very innovative approaches that not only make it possible, but also very affordable!

Founder/CEO of Pickens Innovations, Inc. (PI), a small aerospace company specializing in aerospace hardware, engineering, and R&D; and consulting. Technical areas of consulting include hybrid and liquid propulsion systems, including injector design, ablatives, feed systems, and valves. Business consulting includes product marketing and commercial space.Services provided include valve repair and refurbishment for testing, etc. Product development and design services: torch igniters, hybrid and liquid propulsion systems, fluid systems, and fluid component development from conception to AS9100-based production using competitive manufacturing partners to optimize product costs. Examples of PI contract awards: a program to design and build a 250k thrust stand and fluid system for a commercial space company, and a program to design and fabricate a hydrogen/oxygen test stand to test a sub-scale rocket engine for Stratolaunch. In 2017, PI sold the Stratolaunch program and test hardware to EST, a Huntsville start-up company purchased by GAN. PI is not a launch vehicle company, but an affordable aerospace component supplier and partner with a very focused and proven business charter to provide amazing products at cost points that are not achievable with most large businesses. PI started out exclusively as a consulting firm in 2012, expanding its charter in 2016 to include R&D and hardware design and development.www.pickensinnovations.com

North Las Vegas, Nv, Us

Led a Huntsville-based accelerated methane hot-fire test program based on 5 lbf H2 and O2 heritage thrusters. Orion Propulsion developed these thrusters for Bigelow/Sundancer in 2008, an effort that was also led by Pickens, along with his Orion team. The goal of this recent Huntsville activity was to quickly and affordably evaluate the ignition characteristics using CH4 (methane) as an alternative propellant in a vacuum environment. The test program was aggressive and affordable; the facility and testing occurred in about two months. Key objectives were accomplished with a small "tiger team" before larger scale testing was moved to the Las Vegas headquarters where existing AS9100 Quality Standards support the production of man-rated fight hardware.

Cape Canaveral, Florida, Us

Chief Propulsion Engineer for Moon Express, Inc., a provider of commercial and scientific missions to the Moon. He was responsible for overall propulsion architectures used in Earth departure stages, lunar breaking stages, and lander propulsion systems. Among Pickens' responsibilities at Moon Express were leading its Huntsville, Alabama, office, located near the Marshall Space Flight Center. Pickens split his time between the Moon Express Huntsville office and its corporate headquarters at the NASA Ames Research Park in Silicon Valley.

Huntsville, Al, Us

Pickens was brought on board by Dynetics in December 2009 as part of the purchase of Orion Propulsion Inc. He was responsible for developing innovative space product solutions and expanding Dynetics’ commercial space business. He served as team leader of the Rocket City Space Pioneers Google Lunar X PRIZE team.

Huntsville, Al, Us

Huntsville, Al, Us

Served in the various roles of CEO, president, and CTO for Orion Propulsion after founding the company in 2004. Responsible for technical projects, research and development, and business development. Served as technical lead on the NASA methane RCS thruster work (Phase I and II), the 20k LO2/propane portable test stand, the 180k LO2/propane vertical test stand, the lunar lander testbed, the acoustic igniter project, and the Bigelow Aerospace Forward Attitude Control System programs. Supported Boeing Ares I Upper Stage subcontract and DoD Multipurpose Nano-Missile System (MNMS).

Huntsville, Alabama, Us

Developed alternative methods to reduce manufacturing costs for liquid and solid rocket motor components. Using advanced additive manufacturing processes (VPS), worked with exotic alloys and refractory materials to solve very complex thermal challenges.

Mojave, California, Us

Served as Chief Propulsion Engineer and Developer for Burt Rutan on SpaceShipOne. Led design and test efforts for all aspects of the propulsion system. Designed the propulsion system requirements, nozzle/ motor case/ flange, propulsion fluid systems, pyro devices, rocket motor test stand, Reaction Control System (RCS) and the Propulsion Interface Control Documentation (ICD).

Co-designed and constructed a hybrid-sounding rocket capable of carrying a 2-kg mass to an altitude of 200 km; designed and fabricated a hybrid propulsion system used in a fly-back lifting body concept to support a NASA SBIR; performed multiple LOX, nitrous oxide, and HTPB-based motor firings, with follow-ups on data reduction and analysis; constructed and tested hybrid motors up to 5000 lb. thrust, with burn times up to 63 seconds; coordinated multiple projects that involved design and the fabrication of composites and ablatives; and designed, manufactured, and tested pyro devices associated with igniters, line cutters, explosive bolts, etc.

Led the design and development of 4000, 12,000, and 50,000 lb. thrust regenerative cooled LOX-kerosene tube wall rocket engines; supported the manufacturing of 12,000 lb. thrust rocket motors; co-designed and wrote detailed procedures for the construction of a 50,000 lb. thrust regeneratively cooled motor built for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center that was designed and manufactured in-house; and co-designed and conducted tests on all motors developed at Space America; provided detailed manufacturing procedures and scheduled various areas of fabrication including composites, machine shop operations, and daily fabrication details.

Designed test programs, coordinated test plans, and provided quotations to customers; designed tooling and set-ups to support all aspects of testing (pneumatics, hydraulics, instrumentation, mechanical, and electrical); and oversaw all aspects of environmental testing (dynamic, fluid, solar, chock, strain, etc.)