By Laura Springer
Editor-in-Chief
On Wednesday, February 19, 2013, Clay Anderson spoke to the advanced physics class after school. Anderson is from Ashland, Nebraska, and now resides in Houston, Texas with his family. Anderson moved to Texas after graduate school to work for NASA. For 15 years Anderson was an engineer; he designed space shuttles and space modules. During those years he applied 15 times to be an astronaut; he was rejected all but the last time. After being accepted to be an astronaut, Anderson stuck with it for another 15 years. During his time as an astronaut, he went on two missions, spent 167 days in space, and had 40 hours of space walks.
Anderson graduated high school from Ashland, then attended Hastings College where he got his Bachelors in Physics. He liked Hastings College because he could be just as involved in a small college as he was in high school. “I’m a big believer in doing as many things as you can in your life.” Anderson believes that the more a person does, the more successful it will make them in society.
A typical day in space for Anderson started by waking up at 6am, exercising, eating breakfast, calling ground, working, taking a tea break, working, eating lunch, working some more, taking an afternoon tea break, working again, eating dinner, then enjoying some leisure time. Anderson roomed with two Russian astronauts during his time in space. “We always ate our meals together, I think that was very important [spending time together]. Every Friday night we watched a movie together- it was always Russian!” Anderson was then asked how one sleeps in space. He said that he slept in a sleeping bag that was attached to the wall, then just basically floated in it. “Sleeping in space was awesome!”
Anderson has recently retired from being an astronaut and is spending his time traveling and motivationally speaking. He wants to share his story and inspire others to follow their dreams and never give up, but also to deal with the cards you are dealt. His advice for everything you do in life is, “be passionate, be preserving, be flexible.”
For more information on Clay Anderson, check out his website: astroclay.com; follow him on Twitter: @astro_clay; or find him on Facebook: AstroClay. Also check out his book that will be hitting stores at the end of this year!
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