Clayton Anderson

Did You Know?

• Two of his spacewalk photos from July and August 2007 were listed on Popular Science's photo gallery of the best astronaut selfies.
• He used the 'Book of Answers: The New York Public Library Telephone Reference Service's Most Unusual and Entertaining Questions' for trivia contests on the ISS.

NASA career

Clayton Anderson started at Johnson Space Center in 1983, working in the Mission Planning and Analysis Division on trajectory designs for rendezvous and proximity operations for early Shuttle and ISS missions. In 1988, he became a Flight Design Manager in the Mission Operations Directorate, heading the trajectory design team for the Galileo mission to Jupiter and serving as backup for the Magellan mission to Venus. He was promoted to supervisor of the Ascent Flight Design Section in 1989, later moving to the Flight Design Engineering Office.

By 1993, he was Chief of the Flight Design Branch, and from 1996 until his astronaut selection, he managed the Emergency Operations Center at Johnson. Chosen as an astronaut candidate in June 1998, he began training that August. Anderson served as the family escort for STS-107 at the request of Rick Husband. In June 2003, he took part in the NEEMO 5 mission, spending fourteen days underwater in the Aquarius lab. During an underwater EVA, he cut his thumb with a knife, and hand surgeon Kenneth Kamler stitched the wound.

Personal life

Clayton Anderson was born in Omaha but calls Ashland, Nebraska, home. He and his wife, Susan Jane Anderson, who is from Elkhart, Indiana, have a son and a daughter. His mother, Alice J. Anderson, passed away in December 2007, just after he came back from space; his father, John T. Anderson, is also deceased. A licensed amateur radio operator since 2001, his call sign is KD5PLA. While on the International Space Station in September 2007, he used a ham radio to chat with students. Anderson is Nebraska’s only astronaut, famously rejected fourteen times before NASA finally accepted him in 1998. He retired from the agency in January 2013 and now works in education.

Organizations

Anderson has been a member of the Southwest Basketball Officials Association and formerly officiated men's college basketball for several conferences. He belongs to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. At Johnson Space Center he served as vice president of athletics for the Employee Activities Association from 1987 to 1992. He is a past president and vice president of the Clear Lake Optimist Club and was a member of the Alpha Chi National Scholastic Honor Society at Hastings College. He is also an alumnus of the American Legion Cornhusker Boys State.