Minnesota Father-Son Duo Creates Rockets and Parachutes Used by NASA and Hollywood

A Minnesota father and son duo from Bloomington make all sorts of rockets, parachutes, and stunt equipment. Actually, they are so good at what they do that some of their work has been used by the likes of NASA and in Hollywood movies!

Ky Michaelson, the father of the duo, loves tinkering and "is a space and movie stunt enthusiast" according to WCCO. He has many many pieces of memorabilia, rockets, gadgets, and other contraptions around his house. He has made stunt equipment for many movies. One example from WCCO is he made the rockets in the movie "October Sky" starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

What's even more impressive is that Ky is actually dyslexic. He told WCCO, "'I learned how to read and write in my 60s when I wrote a book.'” He dropped out of school in ninth-grade and has no formal training in any of this stuff!

Ky's son, Buddy Rocketman Michaelson, is 20 years old and shares in the same loves his dad has. He mainly works with the parachutes they create. And yes, Rocketman is Buddy's legal middle name. How fitting!

If you thought it was cool that they have built stunt equipment for Hollywood films, get this, they have also built parachutes "'for NASA, SpaceX, ULA, just about every single aerospace company you can think of'". Buddy says it's pretty cool to be just 20 years old and have contact with these kinds of companies and to be working on such big projects.

Oh yeah, and Ky is the first civilian to ever launch a rocket into space. Now he's trying to do it again with the help of Buddy.