On January 13, 2023, our speaker was Clayton Anderson, Astronaut and SAC Museum President & CEO on the topic "Dare To Be Extraordinary".
Clayton was interviewed for KLKN-TV Channel 8 - click here.
Even before Clayton took the podium, he connected with the room. He is genuine, he gets involved with the young members in the room, he speaks from the heart and he makes personal connections with those in the audience.
Clayton moved back to Nebraska in May. He was born in Omaha, raised in Ashland, attended college in Hastings, graduating with a degree in physics.
He remembers that he first got excited about space on Christmas Even 1968. His entire family sat around the black and white TV to see the Apollo 8 mission. He remembers the control room - they could not see anything but they could hear the communications. There were checks and commands between Houston (the control) and Apollo. He remembers hearing the back and forth. Then it was nearly quiet - static at best - and it was because Apollo was behind the moon. His imagination went wild wonder what could have happened. Then as they cam back around the moon and the communication continued the excitement was back.
As a 9-Year old he knew that he wanted to go to NASA. But, he did not know how to get there. He was a young man from a small town in Nebraska - delivering papers, bailing hay, doing all of the small town activities of a child.
It so happens that Maynard Huntley, a graduate of Hastings College, was back in Nebraska hunting. He happened to meet a school counselor and they shared their information. The counselor mentioned that he knew of a student (Clayton) who was wild about space and Maynard proceeded to tell him about the intern program at NASA.
Upon application Clayton was 1 of the 40 selected for the intern program from a pool of 500 applications.He spent 15 years applying to be in the active program and then 9 years in training before becoming an astronaut.He has spent 167 days in space and spacewalks totaling 38 hours and 28 minutes.
He became involved in SAC Museum Board a few years back. His purpose was to provide artifacts - he had connections at NASA and was able to provide suits, boots, etc. that were actual artifacts from space missions.SAC found that they were in need of a new CEO. It was not something that Clayton was planning.
But, he found that the opportunity was right. He talked with his wife and children about moving from Houston to Nebraska. This was an opportunity to work in a museum on a high hill where he used to play. He has relatives in Nebraska, including Ashland and Omaha. It seemed like the right time to come home to Nebraska.
To come home and stand in the museum and interact with the young people and the parents - it feels right. He believes that he can respect the last 25 years of the museum and set it up for the next 25 years.
He believes that he is supposed to be here now and do this job.
There are some exciting things coming - such as a Challenger Learning Center - and Clayton has additional ideas. He said they are planning to emulate a "tunnel" in the B-52 Bomber which was used to move from one end of the plane to the other. The B-52 is huge, holding bombs in the center. So, to get from one end to the other was a challenge - thus the tunnel.
When asked about "getting back to normal" after time in space he shared his experience. He said as far as muscle and fitness, it takes most people 6 to 8 weeks to get back to their pre-space fitness. But, with dedication he was able to return to "normal" after 3-4 weeks. Gravity was something he also had to work on. He said his wife made sure they used only plastic plates and glasses for a couple of weeks after he returned. He said it is easy to just let go of an item and think it will stay "in air".
His presence in the museum has created some excitement. He walks the floor - sees young visitors - and asks "have you ever met an astronaut"? The kids are in awe. Most of the parents know who he is. But, his presence just simply adds some celebrity to the museum.
BIO
Clayton Anderson is - “Nebraska’s Astronaut!” Born in Omaha and raised in Ashland, he currently resides near Houston, Texas, with his beautifully talented wife Susan. Now retired (2013) after a stellar 30-year career with NASA, Anderson accumulated 167 days in space while living onboard the International Space Station for over 5 months in 2007 and serving as a Mission Specialist aboard Discovery with the STS-131 Space Shuttle crew in 2010.
A seasoned spacewalker, Anderson spent nearly 40 hours in the unforgiving vacuum of space, having helped build the space station through the execution of 6 spacewalks, ranking him in the top 40 on the world’s cumulative all-time spacewalk record list.
Author of 4 hugely successful –and two award-winning-- books, Clayton’s remarkable career has been chronicled in a documentary by Nebraska Educational Television (NET) entitled “Homemade Astronaut.” He has appeared on the History Channel with Larry the Cable Guy (“Only in America,”) the Travel Channel with Kevin Connolly (“Armed and Ready)” and Don Wildman (“Off Limits”), and The Science Channel’s “Secret Space Escapes.”
Clayton’s story is one of big dreams and perseverance. It is unique, heartwarming and inspirational and shows that with hard work, a little luck, anyone can “…dare to be extraordinary!”