Notable persons who started out as amateur rocket builders
(a partial list in roughly reverse-chronological order)
- Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab
- Elon Musk, Chief Designer, SpaceX
- Tom Mueller, Designer of SpaceX Falcon Merlin engine
- Ky Michaelson, led team accomplishing 1st amateur rocket to reach Space
- Homer Hickham, Author, NASA Training Manager
- Eugene Cernan, Gemini and Apollo 17 astronaut
- James Lovell, Gemini and Apollo 13 astronaut
- William Pickering, former Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Director
- Willy Ley, Author
- Bernard Smith, former chief engineer at the Bureau of Naval Weapons
- James Hart Wyld, ARS founder, developed first regeneratively cooled rocket motor; founder of Reaction Motors
- Lovell Lawrence, Jr, ARS founder, founder of Reaction Motors, NASA engineer
- Hugh Franklin Pierce, ARS founder, founder of Reaction Motors
- John Shesta, ARS founder, founder of Reaction Motors
- Werner von Braun, Chief Designer V2 and Saturn V rockets
- Robert Esnault-Pelterie, aerospace engineer and rocketry pioneer
- Sergei Korolev, Chief Designer, Soviet space programme
- A.I.Polyarny, founding member GIRD, aerospace engineer
- Fridrikh Tsander, founding member GIRD, aerospace engineer
- Hermann Oberth, space and rocketry pioneer
- Robert Goddard, professor and liquid rocket pioneer
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