A Cut Above: Engaging Space Station Astronaut Says He Avoided ‘Bad Hair Days’
By Edgar Sanchez, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Apr. 24–Clay Anderson never had a bad hair day in outer space. When he blasted off from Florida aboard the space shuttle Atlantis on June 8, 2007, the Nebraska native had little, if any, hair on his head.
The buzz haircut proved advantageous when he began a five-month stay on the international space station, Anderson said last week during a speech at the Aerospace Museum of California at McClellan Park.
Astronauts with hairdos considerably longer than his, he said, suffered occasional “bad hair days” in the orbiting outpost. He displayed slides of two fellow astronauts whose lengthy locks were thrown out of kilter by zero gravity.
“Short hair is a lot easier to take care of — easy to cut, easy to clean,” Anderson, 49, said in a brief interview after the speech. “I never touched a comb in 152 days.”
Anderson’s hourlong presentation had the right stuff — a mix of humor and science interwoven with the story of a young man’s dream to be an astronaut and how he ultimately realized his goal. In all, Anderson spoke three times at the Aerospace Museum as part of a public relations tour for the National Air and Space Administration. Other speeches during the week took him to area schools and to a meeting of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department Air Squadron.
Anderson’s visits to the museum coincided with its ongoing exhibit, “Space: Dare to Dream,” which traces mankind’s fascination with the heavens and the race to the moon.In the second of his museum talks, Anderson told 150 people that he decided to be an astronaut when he was 8.
“I knew I was going to be an astronaut,” said Anderson, who recalled how, after making his decision, he proudly watched live TV images of Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to walk on the moon, on July 20, 1969.
Courage and dedication, Anderson indicated, are among the prerequisites for becoming an astronaut. Equally vital, he said, is a command of science and mathematics.
Anderson joined the Johnson Space Center in 1983 in the Mission Planning and Analysis Division, according to NASA’s Web site. That same year, he obtained a master of science degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University. Two years before that, he had earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from Hastings College, Neb. No matter what career they choose, people face bumps along the way, Anderson said, explaining that some of his biggest took the form of repeated rejections when he applied to fly away from Earth.
“How many times did I apply to be an astronaut?” he said. “Fifteen times. For 15 years, 15 times. I got picked in 1998.”
After completing training, he waited until last June to finally take off. The wait was worth it, Anderson said. During his stay on the international space station, Anderson performed three spacewalks, the first of which produced his greatest moment in space.
“My favorite moment was when I opened the hatch and did my first spacewalk,” he said.
“It was nighttime, it was pitch-dark,” he said. “The moon came up over the back of the Earth. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Anderson, who returned to Earth on the space shuttle Discovery on Nov. 7, said he felt mixed emotions on the trip back. On the one hand, he said, he was pleased that he would again see his wife and their two young children. On the other, he was sad that his dream flight was ending.
His hair on the way down was just as short as when he went up. A fellow astronaut with electric clippers had treated Anderson to repeated buzz cuts. For safety, the gizmo had a vacuum hose attached to it.
Back on Earth, President Bush noticed Anderson’s lack of hair during a welcome-back ceremony.
“The president looked me right in the eyes and said, ‘Clayton, what a great mission, but it looks like you lost a lot of hair in space,’ ” Anderson said.
Anderson replied, “Mr. President, I can’t believe you just dissed me about my hairline!”
Anderson, who intends to fly again, lives in League City, Texas.
Another special event is on the radar for the Aerospace Museum, at 3200 Freedom Park Drive. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 17, the museum will celebrate “Open Cockpit Day.” As part of the museum’s regular admission price, visitors will be able to step into the cockpits of many of the 38 aircraft in its permanent collection. Usually, most of the cockpits are off-limits to the public. For details, dial (916) 643-3192 or visit www.aerospace-museumofcalifornia.org.
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