In 2019, I took over the role of interim project manager and was then elected permanent project manager. My main role has been to coordinate a critical design review of the test fire system, procure required parts, schedule workdays and objectives, meet with advisors and mentors, write test procedures and safety assessments, and ensure the vehicle propulsion and ground support equipment designs remain compatible and safe. During the past year, the team has moved from design towards operations and over doubled the team size, so there is also a focus on knowledge transfer to new team members.

With the airframe team temporarily inoperative, I transitioned to the engine team. My main roles has been heading up development of the second iteration engine using ablative cooling. Current progress is subscale burn tests of potential ablative materials to comparatively evaluate their performance.

*Note on the photo: This photo was taken during the first test, but ablative samples were painted matte black for better temperature measurements after this test.

The goal of the airframe team was integrating the propulsion system into a flight vehicle for competition. As airframe lead, I led various design solution efforts, maintained the full system CAD and interfaces, managed manufacturing timelines, and ensured system level decisions made by other technical subteams were compatible with the future vehicle design.