Like most humorists, I began my career as a rocket scientist. Some highlights:

 

Pegasus Air-Launched Space Booster
A career zenith -- being a member of the team that won the 1991 National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest award for engineering achievement, for developing Pegasus, the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle. Other notable winners include cats like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway).

 

 

 

Pegasus User's Guide (8.7 MB pdf file)
A sample of my technical writing -- the owner's manual to a rocket. Ninety-two spellbinding pages.

 

 

 

 

 

Does the Space Plane Have the Right Stuff?
Oddly enough, my master's thesis became the only collegiate thesis ever reviewed by the New York Review of Books. This article, adapted from it, was quoted everywhere from The New York Times to Congressional testimony.

     - Technology Review (Jan 87)

 

 

 

Office of Technology Assessment
Some reports I wrote for the Office of Technology Assessment, Congress's now-defunct think tank. Keep the NoDoz handy.