Portrait of Clayton Anderson

Birthday profile

Clayton Anderson

Clayton Anderson, American engineer and astronaut

Born
February 23, 1959
Age in 2026
67
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1959

About Clayton Anderson

Clayton Conrad Anderson (born February 23, 1959) is a retired NASA astronaut. Launched on STS-117, he replaced Sunita Williams on June 10, 2007 as a member of the ISS Expedition 15 crew. He is currently an author, a motivational speaker, and a Professor of Practice at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. In 2022, he became the president and CEO of the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum. == Early life and education == Anderson graduated from Ashland-Greenwood High School, Ashland, Nebraska, 1977, received a Bachelor of Science degree (cum laude) in physics at Hastings College, Nebraska, in 1981 and a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering at Iowa State University in 1983. == NASA career == === Early non-astronaut duties === Anderson joined Johnson Space Center in 1983 in the Mission Planning and Analysis Division, performing rendezvous and proximity operations trajectory designs for early Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions. In 1988, he moved to the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) as a Flight Design Manager, leading the trajectory design team for the Galileo mission to Jupiter (STS-34) while serving as the backup for the Magellan mission to Venus (STS-31). In 1989, Anderson was chosen to be supervisor of the MOD Ascent Flight Design Section and, following reorganization, the Flight Design Engineering Office of the Flight Design and Dynamics Division. In 1993, he was named the Chief of the Flight Design Branch. From 1996 until his selection as an astronaut, Anderson held the post of Manager, Emergency Operations Center, NASA Johnson Space Center.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Clayton Anderson timeline

  1. Anderson is the first and only astronaut from Nebraska and was widely reported in news media as the astronaut rejected fourteen times by NASA before being accepted in 1998.
  2. In 2022, he became the president and CEO of the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum.

The world when Clayton Anderson was born

Clayton Anderson was born in 1959. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1959

  • #1 song"Mack the Knife" – Bobby Darin
  • Top movieBen-Hur
  • Top TV showGunsmoke
  • Best-selling bookGoldfinger – Ian Fleming

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentIngemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson for heavyweight title
  • Top headlineAlaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th US states
  • Technology milestoneMicrochip (integrated circuit) invented
  • Defining fadBarbie dolls
  • Notable inventionBarbie doll
  • World population2.98 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championLos Angeles Dodgers (World Series)
  • Also wonBoston Celtics (NBA)
  • U.S. population177.1M

1959 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Clayton Anderson's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19592026
Gas$0.31$3.45/gal
Average home$12,400$435,000
Average income$7,000$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.69$11.95
Postage stamp$0.04$0.73
Population177.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.