Michaelson discusses his decades of building rockets and rigging Hollywood stunts. He describes constructing rockets for the film October Sky, designing the highest stunt ever performed off Toronto's CN Tower with daredevil Dar Robinson, and putting rocket engines on everything from wheelchairs to Harley-Davidsons. Michaelson details his Civilian Space Exploration Team's attempt to launch an amateur rocket 62 miles into space from the Black Rock Desert.
The conversation covers the bureaucratic obstacles of obtaining FAA and Space Transportation Department approval, the challenges of amateur rocketry at extreme speeds, and Michaelson's skepticism that an Oregon man will successfully launch himself in a homemade rocket.
Key Moments
20 feet, Mach 5, 62 miles up: an amateur rocket aimed at space: Michaelson describes the CSXT vehicle: 20 feet tall, 7,000 pounds of thrust for 15 seconds, accelerating to Mach 5 to reach 62 miles altitude before splitting in half with a linear charge and deploying ballistic parachutes guided by GPS.
The DOT and the FAA didn't know what each other was doing: Michaelson recounts how the CATS Prize team approaching Washington exposed that the Department of Transportation's Space Transportation office and the FAA were unaware of each other's high-altitude rocket waivers, halting amateur launches and creating bureaucratic chaos.
Dyslexia, schoolyard insults, and a 72-record drive: Asked why he wants to be the first private citizen to put a rocket in space, Michaelson traces it back to being called stupid and dumb as a dyslexic 1950s schoolboy and channeling that into 72 state and national speed records.
Civilians will be the ones that put people in space: Michaelson predicts that today's five and six year olds will routinely take rides into space as adults and that civilians, not government, will lead the way; Bell hints at private spaceports being built by wealthy backers, foreshadowing Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.