Space flight a dream come true for Michael Anderson, ’81

by Jon Marmor | June 1, 1998

He had rehearsed it thousands of times. But when it came time to push the buttons that would dock the space shuttle Endeavour with the Mir space station, Michael Anderson’s hands were sweating. “This was the real thing,” he says. “It was actually happening.”

For Anderson, ’81, being in space was a dream come true. Anderson—who was born in Plattsburgh, N.Y., but calls Spokane home—had wanted to fly since he was three years old, when he got his first toy airplane. In January, he was a mission specialist aboard the world’s most sophisticated machine.

Seventeen years removed from studying physics and astronomy at the University of Washington, Anderson, 37, was on the Jan. 22-31 flight of the Endeavour, which brought more than four tons of supplies to Mir and relieved American astronauts already on board.

“It was a little crowded because there were 10 of us inside Mir,” Anderson recalls. In fact, Anderson was part of a world record-tying event: with the 10 astronauts aboard Mir, and a Russian craft with two cosmonauts and a French astronaut having lifted off a day earlier, 13 human beings were in space at one time. That had only happened once before.

Despite Mir’s horror stories, Anderson says the Russian space station wasn’t that bad. “It was like a ship that has been out at sea a long time,” he says. “A little worn but still very functional.” The Mir crew was happy to see Anderson and his crew-which included Payload Commander Bonnie Dunbar, ’71, ’75-because they brought a new air condition­ing unit to replace the one that had gone on the fritz, along with food, water, instruments, supplies and clothing.

In addition to doing post-flight speaking tours, Ander­son is now busy designing the software for the new international space station, which is being built over the next 15 years. “This is one of the most difficult things we have ever done,” says Anderson, who came to the UW to study aeronautical engineering before finding out he preferred physics and astronomy. “My job is to come up with software that will match with the incredibly sophisticated hardware we have.”

After graduating from the UW, Anderson, an ROTC student, joined the U.S. Air Force. While stationed in Nebraska, he went to graduate school and received a master’s degree in physics from Creighton in 1990. He joined NASA three years ago. The January mission—the eighth docking mission between Mir and the shuttle—was his first.

During his mission, he brought along a UW banner and a physics department T-shirt as well as a mascot from the UW chapter of the Society of Physics Students. “I really enjoyed my time at the UW,” says Anderson. “It helped my dream come true.”