The BonNova rocket team for the Lunar Lander Challenge was led by their chief engineer, Allen Newcomb, a rocket engineer with a career background of combined experience in avionics and design for extreme environments that can expose equipment to extreme heat such as oil wells, and race cars with brutal vibrations and extreme EMI
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Newcomb named the lightweight spaceship he designed "Lauryad," after a spaceship in the novel Flight, by American novelist, poet and film actress Vanna Bonta, whom Newcomb credited with inspiring the endeavor.