Clay Anderson likes to take photographs.
His favorite subject? The Earth.
The Ashland native has about 30,000 digital photos of our blue marble planet
he took during his 152-day stay on International Space Station in 2007,
his first trip into space.
Nebraska's only astronaut is training for another space launch, this one set for March 18.
But he won't "get anywhere close" to shooting 30,000 photographs.
Anderson, who grew up and spent his early school years in Ashland,
will be a mission specialist on the space shuttle Discovery.
A second trip into space is something he didn't expect after he returned from his first mission.
"Given that the shuttle program would be winding down, I didn't know if I would be given the opportunity to fly again, and there were a lot of young astronauts coming ... and they deserve an opportunity to fly as well," Anderson said Monday (15FEB2010).
NASA has the 51-year-old down for three spacewalks to replace an 1,800-pound ammonia tank assembly,
retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station's exterior and switch out a rate gyro assembly, an electronic
box that helps the station maintain its position in space.
The training for the spacewalks has been intense.
Astronauts spend about five hours in a deep swimming pool (which simulates zero gravity) for every hour they are going to walk in space. One of the spacewalks will require Anderson to ride on the end of the shuttle's robotic arm, something he did during his first mission, when he jettisoned a refrigerator-sized object into space.
Anderson is eager to return to the orbital outpost. In his training journal entries, he calls it his second home and its crew his second family. And he's looking forward to seeing his "space brother" Oleg Kotov, his Russian crewmate on board the station in 2007.
"When you spend five months with a guy living in a can, you get to be pretty close," Anderson said.
" We had some wonderful times together. We laughed a lot. We talked about our families.
We discussed the state of the world. We just had a wonderful time."
Anderson's mother, Alice, traveled to Florida to watch her son's first launch.
She died in December 2007, shortly after he returned. His father, John, died in 1984.
"She and Dad will be both watching and they will have a pretty good view I think ... of course,
I would prefer to have them there in person," Anderson said.
"They live inside me, and I carry their memory with me wherever I go.
They helped make me the person I am today, and so for that I'm eternally grateful."
Anderson's family was anxious about his first launch. Two shuttles have exploded in the past.
They're handling it better this time around, he said.
His 13-year-old son, Cole, is proud of his father, Anderson said, even though "he's been there and done that."
The article above is reprinted with grateful acknowledgement to the Lincoln Journal Star - Lincoln NE
By ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Click on the BLACK > below for the Movie PREVIEW:
HOMEMADE ASTRONAUT: The Clay Anderson Story
NET Television presented the documentary
Homemade Astronaut-The Clay Anderson Story first 'aired '
Sun eve - June 7th - 6:00 pm on NET1/NET-HD.
The DVD edition of Homemade Astronaut - The Clay Anderson Story is available at:
https://secure.netnebraskastore.org/ProductView.aspx?pid=3042562c-0c54-419e-9954-1f6d7f82cd90
We are grateful to Nebraska's NET1/TNET-HD TV for producing and providing
this important historical DVD http://www.netnebraska.org/television/
Clay served aboard the International Space Station in 2007. After months in space he reflected on his life’s blessings: "I have missed you all deeply," Anderson wrote to his family in his final journal entry from orbit. "There has not been a day that’s gone by where I have not thought of you, prayed for you and smiled because of you. We have done this together as a family and we are stronger because of it."
SHARING HIS STORY
"Homemade Astronaut: The Clay Anderson Story"
Documentary moves astronaut to tears
By Suzi Nelson Published: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:43 AM CDT The Ashland Gazette
ASHLAND – Tears welled in Clay Anderson’s eyes as he watched a 20-minute clip of the documentary being produced by Nebraska Educational Television during a gala premiere Saturday night at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland.
His arm was around his daughter, Sutton, with his wife Susan and son Cole at arm’s length as they watched the preview of the documentary that will air on NET in June.
Nearly 500 people attended the premiere, including several members of Anderson’s immediate and extended family and many Ashland friends. The audience was moved by the emotional words spoken by Anderson, his family and colleagues as they told just a fraction of the story that tells how the young man who grew up in Ashland went on to fulfill his dream and became an astronaut.
Anderson entered the astronaut program at NASA in 1998. His first space mission was in 2007, as he launched on the space shuttle Atlantis in June for a five-month mission on the International Space Station. He will return to space in March 2010 for a 12-day shuttle mission.
As a boy, Anderson dreamed of going into space, as has been told many times. But he didn’t spend every waking minute thinking of being an astronaut. He also played sports, studied hard, had a paper route, was a Boy Scout, sang in church, worked as a lifeguard at Ashland Country Club and lost the seventh grade spelling bee because he couldn’t spell “parallel,” he said.
“I was extremely lucky,” he told the crowd after they watched the documentary preview.
“I was lucky to have grown up in Ashland, Nebraska. I was lucky to have Alice and Jack Anderson as my parents.”
Anderson thanked his family and everyone who supported him during his career and said he was honored
to be the subject of a documentary.
“This wonderful documentary we all viewed for the first time tonight is something I hope will touch the lives of thousands of people young and old alike, not just here in Nebraska but across this great nation,” he said.
He said making the documentary helped him put into perspective what he went through to become an astronaut, having failed many times before being accepted into the astronaut program on his 15th try. He hopes the documentary will give renewed energy and focus to anyone who is pursuing their dream.
“There were times when my doubts were so high that I thought I would never be able to achieve my goal,
but now here we are having watched a documentary that chronicles my life and my career,” he said.
Humor dotted the evening, as Anderson talked about being a role model, and listed the things he has “never” done,
including cheated on his taxes, spit on an umpire or taken steroids.
“But I am telling you tonight that I have never been more proud to be a Nebraskan,” he concluded.
The evening’s honorary chair, Jeff Raikes, told of boyhood memories he shares with Anderson as the two grew up in Ashland.
Raikes, who is the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and former Microsoft executive, said the documentary will give viewers the chance to learn about Anderson’s values, which include perseverance, optimism and a sense of humor.
“It will give millions of people the opportunity to know you in a way even more important than all your accomplishments
as a NASA astronaut,” he said.
Raikes said Anderson remains grounded due to strong ties to his hometown, Nebraska and his family.
“It’s ironic with all of Clay’s travels, including space travel, he has such an incredibly strong sense of place,” he said.
The full documentary aired for the first time on SUN June 7**: said NET General Manager Rod Bates.
It fits perfectly with the current NET programming theme, entitled “Inspire Nebraska,” he said.
It was shown again on THU - JUNE 11th at 8:30 pm (CDST)
** EDITED with the updated schedule on THU 12JUNE 2009
“I think you’ll agree that the story of Nebraska’s first astronaut captures the essence of the word inspire,” said Bates.
The clip shown Saturday night included interviews by Anderson’s wife and children, as well as his sister Lorie Hartzell, brother Kirby and Uncle Jim Anderson.
The documentary also shows the teachers Anderson claimed were instrumental in his life, including longtime teacher Bette Starns, who was interviewed last September. She taught music when Anderson was a student at Ashland-Greenwood High School. He graduated in 1977. “He made life fun,” Starns said in the documentary.
The documentary also shows Anderson’s parents, Jack and Alice, and the important role they played in his life. Especially touching is the segment that talks of Alice’s fight against cancer, which reoccurred while her son was in space.
She died just five weeks after he returned to earth in late 2007.
Story reprinted with grateful acknowledgement to Suzi Nelson of the Ashland Gazette
Ashland plays role in astronaut’s story - By Suzi Nelson, Ashland Gazette - Photo courtesy of NASA
Published – The Ashland Gazette: Thursday, April 2, 2009 8:10 AM CDT
ASHLAND – His whole life, Clay Anderson knew he was destined to reach the stars.
As a young boy growing up in Ashland, he dressed up as a space man for the annual Stir-Up parade.
At age 8, he sat glued to the television one sleepy December night, waiting to hear if the Apollo 8 crew would make it around the dark side of the moon.
His story is almost too all-American, too small-town-boy-makes-good to be true. But it is true. And now his story will be told in a one-hour documentary, “Homemade Astronaut: The Clay Anderson Story” currently underway by Nebraska’s public television station.
“I was born to do this,” Anderson told filmmakers from Nebraska Educational Television (NET) as they interviewed him at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Members of the NET crew traveled with Anderson to NASA facilities, to his home in Texas and filmed him in on more than one trip to his hometown since the astronaut returned from a 152-day mission on the International Space Station in 2007.
Producer Sue Maryott said the documentary will tell Anderson’s story from a family perspective.
“It shows him going down more of an emotional road than a scientific road,” she said.
Ashland played an important role in forming the future astronaut, a recurring theme of the documentary, said Maryott.
“How the community made this guy is the thread,” she said.
Anderson was an excellent student at Ashland-Greenwood Public Schools, graduating as salutatorian in 1977. Throughout school, he was involved in numerous activities, including sports, music, drama and speech. He also found time to sing and play the organ at his church as well as participate in community activities.
Maryott said during her interviews with Anderson and his family and friends, she realized that his small-town upbringing was more of a benefit than a hindrance and that his well-rounded background helped Anderson achieve his ultimate goal – to become an astronaut.
For example, Maryott said it is a well-known fact that Anderson applied to be an astronaut 15 times before NASA accepted him into the program. While his previous background as a NASA employee was stellar and his academic record at Hastings College and Iowa State University were outstanding, it was not enough. Finally, he started to tell interviewers about his involvement in church choir and refereeing youth basketball games. That gave him the edge he needed and he was accepted into the astronaut program in 1998.
This story and others will be told in the documentary, which aired on NET1 / NET- HD:
SUNDAY EVENING, June 7th 2009 at 6:00 PM (CDST)
28APR09 UPDATE: A special preview hosted by Anderson’s life-long friend Jeff Raikes and Gov. Dave Heineman was held on April 25, 2009 at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland.
The event was a HUGE SUCCESS, with over 500 in attendance!
Another recurring thread throughout the story is the person who was the backbone of the Anderson family and whom the astronaut gives much credit for his success – his mother, Alice Anderson.
“Alice is written into the show as sort of the thread that runs through it,” said Maryott.
Alice Anderson passed away in December 2007, just weeks after her son returned from realizing his dream of traveling to and working in space.
Alice Anderson was the one who created that space suit out of tin foil for the Stir-Up parade. She was the one who woke her children up to witness the historic Apollo 8 flight.
And along with her husband Jack, who died in 1984, Alice was the one who instilled a “never quit” attitude into her children.
Anderson said he is pleased that the documentary will focus on his relationships with his mother and the rest of his family, and regrets that his parents
are not here now to share the experience.
“I think it’s important to show what kind of person I am,” he said.
“Family is very important to me, even in this job.”
The documentary will show Anderson, his wife Susan and children Cole and Sutton in their home in League City, Texas, even attending one of Cole’s football games.
Maryott said interviewing family members was necessary to show the emotional side of being an astronaut.
“To be able to see the family in their daily routine was important for us to show, too,” she said.
Spending time with Anderson’s children was very revealing, and often emotional, according to Maryott.
Cole recalled his feelings as he watched his dad launch into space on the shuttle Atlantis in June 2007.
Other children started screaming out of fear, which made the young boy emotional. He remembered the Columbia tragedy in 2003, when his father was serving as an escort to one of the family of one of the astronauts who was killed.
The NET crew also talked extensively with Anderson’s sister, Lorie Hartzell, and his brother, Kirby Anderson. It was one of the first interviews with Lorie that provided the necessary family background information and really got the ball rolling on the entire project, Maryott said.
Anderson said he was flattered and a little taken aback when NET first approached him
about doing a documentary. “I said, ‘Are you nuts?’” he said with a laugh.
Anderson began to look at the project through the eyes of his home state and hometown.
“I don’t think of myself as a big deal, but when I step back and look at it in a more objective manner, I see it is a big deal,” he said.
Maryott saw the difference in perspective when she began to do interviews in Houston and Nebraska.
As the state’s first, and to this point only, astronaut, Anderson is seen through different eyes than down in Houston, where there’s an astronaut practically on every street, she said.
Maryott said the idea of filming a documentary about Anderson came from a cameraman who had read the astronaut’s journals online. He mentioned the idea to a general manager who started the process to get approval, which came almost immediately.
“A show has never been green-lined so quickly here,” Maryott said.
Within weeks, Anderson was on his way back to his hometown for a huge homecoming celebration in late February of 2008. Maryott assembled a camera crew and headed to Ashland and started filming.
They returned to Ashland again in September when Anderson presented items that he had with him in space to the school. In between, Anderson took them on tours of NASA facilities in Houston.
At the same time, Anderson had begun preparations for his next space flight. He will return to space next year for a 12-day shuttle mission with the STS-131 crew, where he will take part in three space walks.
So as Anderson is busy adjusting to his new training schedule, the NET crew is tying up loose ends and adding historic footage of Ashland and preparing for the premiere in April, where they will show a 15-minute cut of the final product that will air in June.
Story reprinted with grateful acknowledgement to Suzi Nelson of the Ashland Gazette and to NASA for the photo.
Sue Maryott of NET is looking for pictures, films, etc. from 60’s & 70’s – Stir-Up Days Parade & Ashland:
Contact: (800) 868-1868, ext 285 or SMaryott@netnebraska.org