Milton Klein

Milton Klein (1924 to 2022) was an American nuclear engineer who headed the United States nuclear rocket program. Born in St. Louis, he took a chemical engineering degree at Washington University in 1944, served in the Navy, and began working in the nuclear power field at Argonne National Laboratory in 1946. He joined the Atomic Energy Commission in 1950 and rose to assistant manager for technical operations in its Chicago office, overseeing development of reactors for nuclear power plants. In 1960 he became deputy manager of the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, which coordinated NASA and the commission on the Project Rover nuclear thermal rocket, and in 1967 he became its manager. The office later covered NERVA and the nuclear generators used on Apollo, Pioneer, Viking and Voyager. He received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1972 and afterwards directed the energy program at Mitre, worked at the International Energy Agency in Paris and led special projects at the Electric Power Research Institute.