Wearing a Nebraska-red shirt and holding up a Husker flag while floating in zero gravity, a smiling Clay Anderson gave an interview from the International Space Station on Wednesday.
ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 7:00 pm
Wearing a Nebraska-red shirt and holding up a Husker flag while floating in zero gravity, a smiling astronaut Clay Anderson gave an interview from the International Space Station on Wednesday.
“I’m doing great. Hello, Omaha, Nebraska!” Anderson said in response to a question from a television reporter.
Because of a flood of media requests, the NASA public affairs office arranged interviews with Nebraska reporters Monday morning. The session lasted about 20 minutes.
Anderson, 48, is the first native Nebraskan to fly into space. On Monday, he also became the first person from the state to walk in space.
“It was absolutely incredible,” said Anderson of Monday’s space walk. “I was never scared. I opened the hatch, and it was pitch-black, but I felt that I had been there all of my life.”
A highlight, he said, was seeing the moon come up over Earth’s horizon.
Among the tasks he completed while outside the space station was to jettison a refrigerator-size ammonia reservoir that no longer was needed.
A clip of Anderson, dangling on the end of a robotic arm and shoving the reservoir in the opposite direction from the orbiting space station, was broadcast on major TV networks Monday evening.
“Throwing away the trash was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me,” Anderson joked.
His younger brother Kirby, who lives in Omaha, called him a high-paid garbageman.
Anderson said he expected no less from his sibling.
“It was a lot of fun,” Anderson said. “It was extremely difficult. A hard day.”
Anderson, who launched into space June 8 aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, spent about 7 hours and 41 minutes outside the space station Monday, carrying out necessary maintenance duties in preparation for the arrival of the orbiter Endeavor on Aug. 7.
On board the space station with Anderson, who is the flight engineer, are Russian commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and cosmonaut Oleg Kotov. Anderson is scheduled to come back to Earth in November.
Early in the spacewalk, Anderson planned to jettison the reservoir while the space station flew over Nebraska, but the clouds rolled in and obscured his view of his home state.
“I saw the Rocky Mountains and the Great Salt Lake,” Anderson said. “The Earth is just a beautiful place. Absolutely gorgeous!”
Becoming an astronaut was a boyhood dream for Anderson, who grew up in Ashland.
“I watched the Apollo 8 astronauts go around the back side of the Moon, and I was hooked,” he said.
After applying to the astronaut program 15 times, he was accepted into the elite corps in 1998 as a mission specialist.
Anderson called flying aboard the space shuttle and living on the space station “the ride of my life.” He thanked his family, friends, the people of Ashland and others who helped him achieve his lifelong dream.
“There are people who made and shaped me and put me on the International Space Station, so I want to pay them back,” he said.
When he returns, Anderson hopes to inspire kids by speaking to as many classrooms and other groups as possible. He encouraged youngsters to never give up on their dreams.
“Don’t ever give up. … You don’t have to be an astronaut. You can be whatever you want to be. You just have to set your mind to it … and go get it,” he said.
A self-described family man, Anderson said the hardest thing about the mission, so far, is being away from his wife, Susan, son, Cole, and daughter, Sutton, who live in Texas. Anderson said he talks to them every day via e-mails, satellite phone and video conferences.
“It’s not quite as bad as I imagined,” he said. “Everything is just fine.”
After completing his first space walk, Anderson said he called his wife, brother and sister. He also has a list of phone numbers of people that he likes to “surprise” with a call from the space station. U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel received one of those calls about a week ago.
Asked about his plans after returning to Earth, Anderson said he is uncertain: “This is the pinnacle. This is the ultimate goal. This is what we all worked together for, my family and I. This is the top of the mountain. The rest is coming down. I don’t know how to top this.”
Anderson said he was never afraid during the spacewalk. But he said he did have a “surreal and emotional moment” when the launch crew closed the hatch on the orbiter before liftoff.
“Since then, everything’s been great. I’m looking forward to the rest of the mission,” he said.
On the lighter side, Anderson said he is eating Russian and American food, “meat and potatoes pretty much.”
Although his sleeping quarters are cramped, he said the space station is pretty roomy, about the size of a three-bedroom house. He said a typical day starts at 6 a.m., with the alarm clock going off, and ends at 9:30 p.m.
“I don’t have that big of a commute. I just hop out of my cubicle, and I’m ready to go,” he said.
One of the most common questions asked by reporters (because lots of kids want to know) is: How does Anderson go to the bathroom?
Said Anderson: “It’s like going to the bathroom on Earth, but you need a vacuum cleaner.”
He said eating is a challenge because the crew has to use tape and Velcro to keep containers from floating away. Anderson said he has mastered the art of eating in space, but he did have one embarrassing moment.
“I squirted a little butterscotch pudding on the commander, and that did not go very well,” he said.
Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at (402) 483-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.