When Clayton Anderson, wearing a bright blue jumpsuit adorned with patches entered the lecture hall, he commanded the attention of the packed room. For the next hour, the astronaut and former Iowa State student captured the attention of the audience with colorful stories about his time in space and the future of the space program.

Anderson began his speech by relaying an interesting tale of his days as a graduate student at Iowa State. After completing his thesis for a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Anderson looked at his records with the university. There was a piece of paper on top of the file, reading “Did you see GRE score?”. Despite initial apprehension about his abilities, Anderson became a successful astronaut for NASA.

After graduation, Anderson began work at the Johnson Space Center. In his initial years he served as a mission specialist and held several other positions. Anderson first went to space in 2007, where he spent five months at the international space station. And went on a second fifteen day mission in 2010.

The mission that Anderson covered his lecture was his second, aboard Discovery in the seven man mission STS-131. During the fifteen day trip, the astronaut and his peers performed maintenance on the International Space Station. They also captured breath-taking images of the Earth from the shuttle, which Anderson shared with the audience.

After speaking about this mission, Anderson continued with talk of the future of NASA and space travel. Commercialization of space was an idea presented that Anderson believes is possible in the future.

Anderson also highlighted that several new space projects have come into effect with the current presidential administration. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Orion MPCV) and Space Launch System (SLS) are projects focused on space exploration that are currently being worked on by NASA.

Anderson also spoke about returning from space and life here on Earth. As a husband and father of two children, he is a devoted family man. Anderson then spoke about his mother, who was diagnosed with cancer shortly before his first mission. She fought the disease for five months until he returned home, though she passed shortly after his arrival back on Earth. When they were reunited after the mission, mother commented that he was real to her again. Anderson went on to say “I was real to her again, and she’ll always be real to me.”

Despite his serious experiences, throughout the lecture Anderson maintained a sense of humor and connected with his audience. He used a series of pictures taken in space and had the audience shout out captions for the picture and then provided his own. Anderson’s captions were humorous, with statements such as “Do these pants make my butt look too big?”. Anderson later cracked several jokes about the Nebraska and Iowa State rivalry.

Clayton Anderson’s experiences in space and with NASA were impressive, and achieved through dedication and hard work. As Anderson said, “…I had a passion for what I wanted to do in life, and a work ethic that says I just can’t quit.”