Dennis began building rockets in his early teens and wrote a book on rocketry in high-school. In the 1990s, he was one of the founders of the Great Lakes Rocket Society. They built the 21 foot Huron LOX-kerosene rocket using a 1000 lbf Rocketdyne LR-101 Atlas vernier engine. Dennis developed some of the astrionic (rocket electronic) components: the quarter-turn bidirectional ball-valve controller for cryogenic fluids, the pyrotechnic current-source igniter drivers, and the Huron static-test and flight controller. Some of these components became part of a bid to Pioneer Astronautics for a NASA Bantam-weight third-stage project. His Innovatia modular computer used for data acquisition was flown by the USAF on high-altitude balloon missions in New Mexico with a perfect operational record. In the 2010s, he made the final refinements to my rocket book and added astrionics. Rocketry and Astrionics is an intermediate treatment of both subjects and bridges the gap between hobbyists or students and the engineering literature on astronautics. It is now available from the Houston Space Society or innovatia.com.
Dennis’s role with the Houston Space Society is advisory. He is not a director nor is he an officer of Houston Space Society.