Astronaut Clay Anderson to Speak at Museum of Flight June 19

NASA astronaut speaks about his five-month experience on the International Space Station

SEATTLE, June 17, 2009

--NASA Astronaut Clayton C. Anderson, who lived for 152 days aboard the International Space Station in 2007 as a member of the Expedition 15 and 16  Crews, will speak at the Museum of Flight on Friday, June 19 at 2 p.m. His presentation is entitled "Life on the Space Station." While on orbit at the Space Station, he performed numerous scientific and engineering experiments, conducted three spacewalks and used the Robotic Manipulator System--commonly called Canadarm2--developed by the Canadian Space Agency to prepare the Station for the arrival of the U.S. built "Harmony" node. Anderson is currently assigned to the Space Shuttle crew of STS-131, scheduled to launch in March, 2010. He will present in the William M. Allen Theater and will be available for autographs and questions following the program.

Anderson was born and raised in Nebraska, which he considers his home state. He graduated from Ashland-Greenwood High School, Ashland, Nebraska, in 1977; received a bachelor of science degree cum laude in Physics from Hastings College, Nebraska in 1981 and a master of science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University in 1983. He launched to the ISS on June 8, 2007 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis--STS-117--as the Expedition 15 Flight Engineer and the Science Officer and returned to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Discovery as a member of the STS-120 crew, landing at Kennedy Space Center on November 7, 2007. Expedition 15 and 16 included a number of science and engineering experiments from Russia, Europe, Canada and the United States. These included medical and physical sciences research, as well as observations of the Earth.  Orbiting the earth at more than 220 miles, the ISS offers an ideal vantage point for crew members to continue observational efforts that began in the early 1960's. During Expeditions 15 through 18, activities included collaboration with the International Polar Year activities. Phenomena studied included auroras and mesospheric clouds. Astronaut photography of the earth can be found at: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ipy
Anderson joined the NASA Johnson Space Center in 1983 in the Mission Operations Directorate Mission Planning and Analysis Division where he performed rendezvous and proximity operations trajectory designs for early space shuttle and ISS missions. In 1988 he became the Flight Design Manager leading the trajectory design team for the Galileo planetary mission--STS-34--while serving as the backup for the Magellan planetary mission--STS-31. In 1993 he was named the Chief of the Flight Design Branch.  From 1996 until his selection as an astronaut in 1998, Anderson held the post of Manager, Emergency Operations Center, NASA Johnson Space Center.