” … I had a dream that started in my first year of high school, was able to nurture and grow it through those six years, and the life
lessons and brilliant education I received in those hallowed halls, enabled me to achieve and live my dream.
Thank you, Boys’ High, and especially to those teachers that guided me along the path.”
Trevor’s MEMOIRS
Schoolboy Rocketry
Personal Narrative
Hamilton Primary School Days
Personal narrative
Newcastle Boys’ High School
Personal Narrative
BIOGRAPHY
Professional
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Dr. Sorensen received his BS. (1973), M.S. (1976) and Doctor of Engineering (1979) degrees in Aerospace Engineering from University of Kansas (KU). He did his doctoral project on Pioneer Venus at NASA Ames. He then was a Space Shuttle guidance and control engineer, worked in Mission Control as assistant Flight Director, and finally was a software engineering manager supporting Shuttle missions. In 1990 he joined Bendix Field Engineering (now Honeywell, Inc.) in Alexandria, Virginia, as Observations Manager of the Department of Defense’s LACE satellite. In 1994, Dr. Sorensen was the Lunar Mission Manager for the DoD/NASA Clementine lunar mission for which he received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and nominated Engineer of the Year by Design News magazine.
Dr. Sorensen was the program manager for the $23 million Space Systems R&D contract with the Naval Research Laboratory under which the USAF MSTI-3 satellite was operated. He was then technical director for Honeywell’s global satellite tracking and control system, DataLynx. Dr. Sorensen was an associate professor in the KU Aerospace Engineering Department 2000-2007. In 2007 he joined the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a specialist professor and project manager in the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory. He became tenured faculty in 2012. He is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society, a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and from 2008-2014 was on the AIAA Board of Directors as the Director of the Space and Missiles Group, which consists of 14 technical committees.
Computer Gaming
While in Houston in 1981 Sorensen released through DECUS a game for DEC computers he wrote called Starfleet. In 1982, he started a company called Cygnus, which marketed a game for the PC and other home computers called Star Fleet I – The War Begins. In 1986
he and his partners incorporated to form Interstel Corporation (with Sorensen as CEO), which that same year became an affiliated label of Electronic Arts (EA). In 1988 one of Interstel’s games, Empire – Wargame of the Century, was named as Computer Game of the Year by Computer Gaming World magazine. Star Fleet II – Krellan Commander was released in 1989. Sorensen sold his shares and left Interstel in 1990, and the company ceased operation in 1992. With programmer Brett Keeton and artist/game designer
Richard Launius, Sorensen formed a game-development company, Supernova Creations, in 1991. Their game, Star Legions, was released by Mindcraft, Inc. (an affiliated label of EA) in late 1992, but Mindcraft went out of business about a year later. Star Fleet Deluxe for the Android was released through Google Play in August, 2014.
Personal
Attended Newcastle Boys’ High School 1964-1969, then moved to the USA in November, 1969 to attend university. While living in Houston in 1982, he met Lori Thatcher through the church they attended together. They married in November, 1984 and have three children: Angela (born 1991), Eric (1993), and Rachel (1995). Trevor has two older sisters: Beth (with husband Bill lives in Independence, Missouri), and Marvia (with husband Kym lives in Valentine, NSW). His parents are deceased.