A former NASA astronaut who spent 5 months in the International Space Station, Clayton Conrad Anderson.

Clayton Conrad Anderson aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2007.

Clayton was a US astronaut. He joined the Johnson Space Center in 1983 and held several positions before being selected as an astronaut in 1998. He headed the trajectory design team as flight design manager for the Galileo mission, launched in 1989, and the Gamma-Ray Observatory, launched by the space shuttle Atlantis in 1991. He became chief of the flight design branch in 1993 and manager of the Emergency Operations Center in 1996.

In 2007, Clayton spent a 5-month tour of duty working aboard the International Space Station. He launched to the space station on June 8, 2007, aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis with the crew of STS-117. Docking with the station on flight day 3, he replaced Suni Williams as the Expedition 15 Flight Engineer and also assumed the role of Science Officer for the expedition.

In January 2013, Clayton retired from NASA to pursue other interests. He is now currently an author, a motivational speaker, and a Professor of Practice at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

Clayton shared about:

• What it takes to be an astronaut.
• His long journey into the space station.
• What made him leave NASA.