Michael Phillip Anderson (1959 - 2003)

Born 25 Dec 1959 in Plattsburgh, Clinton, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 1 Feb 2003 at age 43 in Over Texas, United States

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Biography

Michael Anderson is Notable.

Michael Phillip Anderson (December 25, 1959 – February 1, 2003) the son of Andy Anderson. He was a United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut.

Defense Distinguished Service	Defense Superior Service	Meritorious Service	National Defense Service

1987	Married Sandra Lynn Hawkins on 26 Sep 1987 in Spokane, Washington, USA.[1]
1990	Master of Science in Physics, Creighton University.
1994	Selected by NASA in Astronauts Group 15. [2]
1998	Flew on Endeavour STS-89 as MS2 with Terrence Wilcutt, Joe Edwards, James F. Reilly, Bonnie J. Dunbar, Salizhan Sharipov, Andy Thomas (up) and David A. Wolf (down). Awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal, his first of 2. [3]
	STS-89	NASA Space Flight
2003	Flew on Columbia STS-107 as MS3 with Rick Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark and Ilan Ramon. Awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the NASA Space Flight Medal, his second of 2. [3] Died when the Columbia broke apart during reentry.	NASA Distinguished Service
	STS-107	NASA Space Flight
2004	Awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. [4]	Congressional Space Medal of Honor

Obituary

In Spokane, Wash., where he grew up, Lt. Col. Michael Anderson was such a success story that the Rev. Happy Watkins would use a signed picture of the astronaut as a motivational tool when the clergyman spoke to young people.

"It shows him in an astronaut suit standing next to the Columbia space ship," said Watkins, Anderson's former Sunday school teacher. "The kids can look at him and see he is black."

"It's inspiring to show," Watkins said. "If he can aspire to be the best, you can be the best."

Payload commander Michael Anderson was teaching pilots how to fly refueling aircraft at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in New York when NASA chose him as one of only a handful of black astronauts.

"He was ideally suited for it," said Rich Cantwell, chief of military justice at the base. "He knew what his job was and he was one of those guys who could do his job so well and make it look so easy."

The son of an Air Force man, Anderson was born in Plattsburgh, grew up on military bases but considered Spokane his hometown. He developed his love of flying early.

"I was always fascinated by science-fiction shows, shows like 'Star Trek' and 'Lost in Space,'" Anderson, 43, said in a recent interview. "And going out of your house and looking up and seeing jets fly by, that seemed like another very exciting thing to do."

"So it all kind of came together at a very young age, and I thought being an astronaut would be the perfect job."

In 1998, Anderson traveled to Russia's Mir space station aboard the shuttle Endeavour. On the Columbia mission, the lieutenant colonel was in charge of dozens of science experiments. To him, the risks of flying were worth it.

"I take the risk because I think what we're doing is really important. If you look at this research flight and if you really take an opportunity to look at each experiment ... the potential yield that we have is really tremendous," he said.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ "Washington, Marriage Index, 1969-2014," Ancestry.com.
2. ↑ Wikipedia List of Astronauts, by Year
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Agency Awards Historical Recipient List
4. ↑ Congressional Space Medal of Honor Recipients
5. ↑ Obituary

See also:

• Wikipedia: Michael P Anderson
• Wikidata: Item Q318542, en:Wikipedia
• Find A Grave: Memorial #7135889
• Ancestry Profile