CSXT

CSXT - Civilian Space eXploration Team

The REST OF THE STORY first civilian amateurs fly the CSXT rocket to space

Team Members

CSXT Story

This is the rest of the story behind the first amateur team to launch a rocket to space in 2004 narrated by Bruce Lee who was the first team member of the CSXT team. In 2004 a small team of rocketry enthusiasts and aerospace professionals designed and built the first non-government rocket that went beyond the Karmen Line (international definition of space) of 100 kilometers (62.14 miles), to an apogee of over 72 miles.

Bruce Lee - My Work

This site and story is being maintained by the original team member Bruce Lee, the rocket guy and not the karate guy. My rocket journey began in October of 1957. I was 5 years old and my dad took me outside to look at Sputnik with his 8" reflector telescope. It changed my life. I went from crayon drawing pictures dogs and cats to drawings of rockets and satellites. I intensely followed the space program from that point on. In 1964 I built and flew my first rocket. I wanted to be an astronaut or fighter pilot but wearing glasses at the time negated both of those dreams. I continued building and flying model rockets until I graduated high school. I went on to get a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration (I ran several businesses in High school). I rediscovered rocketry in 1987 while helping my girl friends son do a school rocket project. In 1991 I discovered the Tripoli Rocketry Association, joined, passed my Class B certification and formed Tripoli Nebraska, a prefecture of the national association. In 1994 I ran for the Board of Directors and became the Treasurer, a position I held until 2018. I was awarded a Life Membership for my contributions to the hobby. In 1996 I met Ky Michaelson, who at the time was setting amateur altitude records. We became friends and in 1997 I was a team member on his first attempt to fly a rocket to space. Out of that attempt Ky built a team of people, CSXT Civilian Space eXploration Team, to build and fly the first amateur rocket to space. We finally accomplished a 72 mile apogee flight in May 2004. We did a successful 10 year reunion flight to space in 2014. To this day no other amateur team has been able to duplicate our efforts and the CSXT team is still the only one to get to space (Karmen Line 100km). This web page is the history of those efforts.

Article By CSXT Member Korey Kline (K2) – a Bio of sorts about Ky Michaelson and himself

Synergy to Space

By K2 TRA 009

I first heard the name Ky Michealson sometime in the year 1995. I had just introduced the first N2O Hybrids to the HPR market under the trade name “Hypertek” after years of activity in the RRS/PRS/IRS Amateur rocket societies. I had also recently been elected to the TRA board of directors. I received a few phone calls concerning this new guy to HPR that was bragging about all the rocket projects he built and called himself “The Rocketman”. At the time I thought I knew who the players were in the HPR/ Experimental rocket community. I couldn’t imagine why this guy could possibly have the nerve to call himself “The Rocketman” … So, I made a phone call to check him out!

I was initially skeptical about anything that would justify such a self-imposed title but after a 30 minute phone call I was intrigued. He talked about his 72 world records with various rocket-powered vehicles, rocket powered dragsters, rocket powered go-karts, rocket powered motorcycles, rocket powered boats, and even rocket powered roller-skates. I was thinking to myself, this guy was watching to many Road Runner cartoons or had a lifetime subscription to the “ACME” fantasy catalog… But I kept on listening, hoping he would say something that was obviously wrong to verify my suspicions.

He talked about knowing the famous stuntmen Dar Robinson and Evil Knievel and having built the car that set the ultimate world record in the quarter mile of 3.22 seconds at 412 MPH with Kitty O’Neil driving. I once attended a rocket car test run at Lucerne Dry Lake back in 1976 and was familiar with Kitty, the first female rocket car driver and thought I had a trick question to ask…. Have you ever heard of a rocket car called the Pollution Packer and what was the propellant? He said yes, I built it and it was 90% (hydrogen) Peroxide. By this time I was starting to think maybe he is the real deal but as President Regan once said, “Trust but Verify”. I had enough information to check him out and ended the conversation with the respect given to any accomplished person or potential lunatic.

Thinking to myself, if he’s done all that in the rocket car world, it should be easy to find his name in the history books, so I pulled out my handy book “H2O2 rocket Cars” by BJ Humphrey’s. Many years earlier I had the pleasure of meeting BJ Humphrey’s who was considered a historian of all things rocket related and was an earlier member of the RRS/PRS rocket societies. As I opened the book, literally the first photograph I saw was a young rocket car builder named Ky Michealson. Well… I’m convinced; he IS the Rocketman… I’ve called him back hundreds of times since then to hear more about his projects. Those of us who know Ky understand that he’s never short on words when discussing his adventures and in time with a common interest we became rocket brothers.

Ky then started his HPR rocket kit & chute company and became one of the first distributors to carry the Hypertek Hybrid product line, which started our working relationship.

In 1996 I became involved with a NASA/DARPA program called HPDP to develop a hybrid sounding rocket. Using the Hypertek HPR technology and many designs elements from my RRS/PRS days in California we succeeded in building & flying the 6” diameter “Hyperion 1A” N2O/HTPB Hybrid Sounding Rocket, we had four flights with the peak altitude to 119,780 feet with full recovery. This verified rocket altitude record had remained unbeaten by a civilian team for many years prior to the CSXT Go Fast Flight and was subsequently entered into the 2000 Millennium Edition of the Guinness Book of World records. Several months after these historic flights, the Space Frontier Foundation offered the “CATS Prize” (Cheap Access To Space) with a $250K cash award for the first group to fly a rocket to a verified altitude of 100Km (330K ft) with a 2 Kg payload. The Second Space Race was on!

At the first CATS kickoff meeting, not being shy, Ky made the bold statement to all that he was going to be first to put a rocket into space and offered anybody who wanted to work with him an opportunity to join him. He also offered to make a video of his project and any other teams’ quest for space for a TV special. Several other teams naively suggested that it would be all over in six months but I knew different and could tell that Ky with his tenacity and resources was in it for the long haul. Many people considered the Hyperion flight the mark to beat and I proceeded to design the next generation N2O/HTPB 12” “Hyperion 2A” as 200K Lb-sec Total Impulse Rocket as defined by the legal “Amateur” limit. Ky’s plans involved working with solid rocket motors and perhaps multistage. We would publicly give each other a hard time and create controversy on the “CATS Forum” while behind the scenes encourage and follow each other’s projects.

Months and years started to pass and it ended up becoming more difficult to deal with the government launch licensing than it was to build the rocket. I was making real progress on my design with full thrust firings but was not interested or capable of dealing with the bureaucratic nightmare that was required to actually launch something to space. While Ky had less success with rocket designs, his persistence would not let him fail to launch something before the CATS deadline. He was able to convince the FAA to be granted a waiver making his team the first and only team to fly something serious under the CATS competition guidelines.

The CATS Prize came and went without a winner, as many of the other teams dropped from the quest for space. That wasn’t the case for Ky and his team; it only made it more of an attractive goal! Ky is a very competitive person and we continually challenge each other on various topics and maintain a friendly rivalry much like two cross-town football teams. The X-Prize was then announced with the goal of putting 3 people to 100 Km twice in two weeks. I was thinking at the time that nobody was able to put up a 2 kg payload to space let along 3 people, that’s going to take a lot of money to accomplish, much more than the offered 10 Million Dollar prize. While Ky’s team continued to develop the next generation solid rockets, he gained experience working with the FAA and building progressively larger rockets.…well at least progressively smaller failures.

At this time Burt Rutan approached us to build him a N2O/HTPB hybrid for his X-Prize vehicle SpaceShipOne. We hired Derek Deville (CSXT motor team with K2) as one the few HPR flyers in Miami, not to mention a serious mechanical engineer to work on the SS1 (SpaceShipOne) project. Together we were in competition against another company to provide the final flight motors for SS1. Several objectives were accomplished with these tests including the first full duration firing and a final total impulse of over 840K Lb-sec making these motors the largest N2O Hybrids ever fired!

Long sad story short, we lost the competition for the final flight motors and SS1 eventually went on to win the X-Prize without us. But first, before that story is complete, we received a feeler phone call from Jerry Larson the CSXT Project leader asking if we could build the CSXT Team a hybrid to go to space? I can’t tell you how amused I was at the challenge of beating Burt Rutan to space with a rocket powered with a N2O Hybrid. Irony of all irony, of course we said yes, we would love to! Then I received the all important phone call from Ky Michealson as the leader of CSXT, the conversation went something like this:

Korey: “So Ky, did you finally decide you couldn’t get to space without me?”

Ky: “No, I decided you couldn’t get to space without me!”

Truer words could not have been said, thus forming the synergy required to get the first civilian rocket to space, even before SS1….and the rest is history!