Hello! I'm Thomas Booska, a senior mechanical engineering student at ASU!
I currently work primarily in and around rocket propulsion, from solid rocket propellant formulation to liquid rocket engine hotfire operations, and including most everything in between. Past projects here include solid rockets up to Mach 3.6, my ill-fated attempts at sending a rocket hypersonic, a cryogenic liquid rocket engine test stand, solid rocket propellant testing, and a whole lot of hooligan activities.
My professional interest is primarily in launch vehicle fluid systems, and past internship experiences have brought me to West Texas on Blue Origin's BE-4 test stand, to Physical Sciences Inc. building and testing rotating detonation rocket engines, and to Thea Energy, working on R&D for HTS magnets for a stellarator fusion machine!
Feel free to contact me about anything rockets or related!
Recent Fire
In spring '26, Luke Wybourn (instrumentation and controls), Nate Young (engine), and myself (fluid system and test ops) successfully fired a regeneratively cooled 400 lbf liquid rocket engine, 7 times, for 81 seconds of total burn time.
I successfully tested the motor for my upcoming 54mm hypersonic rocket attempt, which was made with a custom 84% solids propellant and a hand-made carbon fiber casing, and produced 930 pounds of peak thrust. An identical motor has been manufactured for a flight in the next couple of months!