January 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "Space Nuclear Power for Surface and Space Applications" with guest speaker Dr. Harvey J. Willenberg, consultant to NASA, the space industry and an expert on space nuclear power.

February 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "In-Situ Propulsion for Lunar Exploration" with guest speaker Mr. James Hopkins, Senior mechanical systems engineer for International Space Systems, as well as HAL5 member and officer.

March 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "Solar Sailing in the Inner Solar System" with guest speaker Mr. Sandy Montgomery, NASA solar sail project manager. Project HALO work nights moved to the home of Steve Mustaikis from Tim Pickens' shop at his new company Orion Propulsion.

April 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "Weightless in Seattle: The Physiology of Living in Space" with guest speaker Ms. Jeri Hopkins, HAL5 member and HAL5 secretary, giving her first talk before an audience - definitely a learning experience!

May 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "Planetary Defense Against Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects" with guest speaker Mr. Robert Adam, PE, NASA MSFC system engineer.

Discovery Channel Canada, for their Daily Planet TV show, airs an interview with member Tim Pickens and his daughter Sara about their "rocket bikes" in a segment titled "Rocketing down the bike path". The Web site recording is at Discovery Channel Canada

A record twelve HAL5 members attended the 2005 ISDC in Washington, D.C. It was the largest representation of an NSS chapter at 2005 ISDC - excluding the host chapter DC-L5. A HAL5 group picture was taken before the start of Konrad Dannenberg's talk about his experiences with rocketry as a member of the Werner Von Braun rocket team. Other important HAL5 activities and accomplishments at ISDC 2005:

• Tim Pickens talked about his roots with HAL5 and Project HALO, and how the experiences lead him to working for Burt Rutan on SpaceShipOne's propulsion system, his involvement with Huntsville's bid for the X-Prize and the start of his rocket company.
• HAL5 received an NSS Chapter Excellence Award for its great accomplishments in 2004.
• Ronnie received the highest recognition bestowed on an NSS member, the Chris Pancratz Memorial Space Activist of the Year Award, for his extensive work at the national level.

June 2005
HAL5 membership meeting and election of officers. Thirteen members attended. We appointed Greg Allison to be our senior advisor, a non-voting, non-officer position. Afterward, the group discussed what happened at the 2005 ISDC, and asked the members about the possibilities of bidding for ISDC 2008 or 2009.

July 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "Astrobiology of Comets: Life in Outer Space" with guest speaker Dr. Richard B. Hoover, NASA Astrobiologist and future HAL5 member.

Tim Pickens returned to "The Space Show" with Dr. John Livingston on July 5. Tim discussed new development with his company, Orion Propulsion, and work on hybrid launch vehicle program (which originated from Project HALO), his work on the SpaceShipOne, entrepreneurial business climate, and so forth. Tim also gave plugs about HAL5 and Project HALO. Listen Here

HAL5 held a summer cookout and gathering. HAL5 reserved a large display case at the Huntsville Main Public Library for October. The committee decided on a space background with a HAL5/NSS banner, and showing HAL5 history, achievements, Project HALO's achievements, some rocket hardware and pictures, and what we are planning to do in the future.

August 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "SpaceShipOne Behind the Scenes" with guest speaker Timothy Pickens, President and founder of Orion Propulsion, longtime Project HALO and HAL5 member. We had a great crowd of about 90 attendees thanks to extensive advertising. After the lecture, Mr. Pickens thanks HAL5 for the advertising and the great turn out.

The Huntsville Times interviewed Tim Pickens for an article titled "Dreams put Orion on track for stars." The 12 August 2005 article has been archived on the Web here.

September 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "Private Enterprise and the Vision for Space Exploration" with guest speaker Mr. Dennis Wingo, President of SkyCorp, author of Moonrush.

Members of HAL5 visited Senator Shelby's office in Huntsville, as part of the NSS-wide Fall Space Blitz that encouraged NSS chapter members to visit their local members of Congress during their fall recess. Greg gave a presentation on "Human Destiny - Why We Must Choose to Settle Space Now to Survive" for the September monthly program of the Von Braun Astronomical Society.

HAL5 member Tim Pickens was again featured in the Huntsville Times (Sept. 29), and Discovery Science Channel re-aired the five-minute segment about Tim and Sarah Pickens from May 2005. Tim Pickens was also honored by the national magazine Popular Mechanics by winning their Popular Mechanics 2005 Reader Award.

October 2005
There was no HAL5 public lecture for this month. We showed a video of Space Station (IMAX).

HAL5 member Tim Pickens was featured on a 2 minute segment on Inside Edition TV news magazine show (October 4). Tim and his daughter Sarah demonstrated their rocket bikes in New York City's Central Park.

HAL5 officers and members: Yohon, Ronnie, Greg, Tim, Don, and Arlin attended the first, X-Prize Cup events in Las Cruces, NM. The two now-famous rocket bikes, some rocket hardware and promotional items from Tim's company's Orion Propulsion and from HARC were brought out there. The group setup displays and demonstrated the rocket bikes at the space conference in Las Cruces and at the space educational days in Alamogordo prior to the start of the X-Prize Cup. At both events, we were well received, and credit and acknowledgement were given to HAL5 and Project HALO for the origin of the rocket bikes. The showing of the rocket bikes, and running of the cold gas bike at the space educational day for the students was a big success. The children were really interested in seeing the runs.

At the main X-Prize Cup event, the two rocket bikes were a big draw at the joint NSS/HARC booth. We talked to the public about the rocket bikes. How this came about from the Huntsville chapter of NSS, and explained that HAL5 has done a lot of hybrid rocketry since 1994. Folks were excited to learn that NSS chapters can be this fun. NSS Executive Director, George Whitesides, thanks the Huntsville folks for the help with the booth and that the rocket bikes helped to bring folks to the NSS booth. Furthermore, a lot of people came to the NSS booth because they heard we have rocket bikes. It was unfortunate that we could not run the rocket bikes.

November 2005
During the month of November, HAL5 "rented" (for free) a large display case at the Huntsville Main Public Library to show HAL5's history and achievements, its connection to the National Space Society, its Project HALO's achievements, some rocket hardware and pictures, and what we are planning to do in the future.

The monthly program was devoted to membership meeting, and Yohon and Greg talked about our recent X-Prize Cup. We talked about the pre-X Prize cup's space conference, Space Education Day, and X-Prize Cup. We also show some videos of us running the cold gas rocket bike, Inside Edition's segment on the Pickens and their rocket bikes, and Space Education Day video (which featured an short clip of the rocket bikes too).

Popular Mechanics magazine awards Tim and Sarah Pickens a Breakthrough Award for their "The Rocket-Propelled Bicycle" Archived here

Project HALO's Tube Launch 1 (TL-1) test hybrid rocket motor was tested on November 12 at a private grass airfield just outside of Huntsville. Due to the restrictions set by the owner of the field, only crucial folks were there. No general public or membership. Unfortunately, the motor failed due to case rupture caused by injector failure. Post test inspection indicated that our "swaging technique" worked well - it even survived the case rupture!

December 2005
HAL5 public lecture on "NASA's Plan to Return to the Moon" with guest speaker Mr. Stephan R. Davis, NASA engineer and member of NASA Exploration Systems Architecture Study Team.

HAL5 Christmas Party.