Kalispell man honored for work in space program

Addison Bain, Ph.D. has received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award for lifelong achievement and contributions to the U.S. space program. There are only three recipients recognized annually.

During awards luncheon at Cape Canaveral, Dr. Bain was described as having an exemplary space career spanning almost 50 years working for NASA, Air Force and numerous space industry contractors.

In his acceptance speech, Dr. Bain recalled as a young boy during World War II, he was fascinated with the German V2 rocket technology so he made a similar model rocket. He could not use liquid propellants so cut up hundreds of fireworks to get the nitrate powder in them. After ignition, the rocket just danced around burning holes in his dad’s immaculate lawn. That ended his initial rocket launches..

He mentioned it was decades later when he learned about such things as vehicle propellant mass fractions and divergent exhaust nozzles. Dr. Bain noted it would have helped had he known about them earlier.

He was 14 when a movie, “Destination Moon,” once again spurred his interest in building a rocket. The four-foot tall sleek looking model based on the movie concept sits in his office on a lunar landscape today. Addison commented that as part of the Apollo project, he was a little dismayed witnessing the gangly spider looking Lunar Module, but later learned and understood the reasons for that particular design.

Addison recalled learning of the formation of NASA in the fall of 1958. He was inducted into the Army at the same time and later became a member of Wernher von Braun’s rocket team at Huntsville, Ala. When he met von Braun, Addison explained he was a physicist, having studied at Montana State College, Bozeman.

Addison received a bachelor’s and master’s of science from Florida Institute of Technology in Space and Systems Management and a doctorate in engineering management. He is known internationally as an expert in hydrogen technologies.

Long list of his achievements include accepting on behalf of NASA the International Association for Hydrogen Energy Konstantin Tsiolkosvky Award for Pioneering the Application of Hydrogen for Space Exploration.

I met Addison Bain when he was visiting his mother in Kalispell several years ago. He was a guest speaker for Kalispell Lions that visit. His parents are the late Art and Dorothy Bain, Kalispell.

Friends include Rosella Isaacson and her late husband, Ed Proefrock.

The men were childhood friends and graduated from Flathead High School in 1953. Bain and his wife, Sharon, reside in Melbourne, Fla.

Gladys Shay is a longtime resident and columnist for the Hungry Horse News.