NASA Astronaut Clayton Anderson visits Homestead National Monument



Me with Clayton Anderson

Founders Day, or August 25, 2012 was the 96th anniversary of the establishment of the National Park Service. Homestead National Monument invited Nebraska native and NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson to do a program at the monument on Founders Day, discussing the new frontier- Space. Clayton Anderson's program was very interesting and enlightening. He was a very down to earth guy with great story telling skills. He wandered around the crowd talking to people and posing for pictures before the program even began. He then started his program with some pictures and he got the audience involved by asking them to think what the captions might be. After taking a few suggestions from the crowd, he would reveal his captions. His captions always got a laugh out of the crowd. In many of the pictures of him in space, there was always something Nebraska related, most often a Nebraska Huskers hat, or the big red 'N' which he always had with him an all of his space walks. He talked a little about what life the the space station was like and then he went on to draw comparisons between the old frontier and the new frontier, similarities like problems with being able to travel long periods of times with only limited supplies. The whole program was very interesting and the crowd  seem to really enjoy it. At the end of the program he took some questions from the audience. Afterwards he stayed around to sign more autographs and pose for more pictures.

Panorama view of Clayton and the audience

Clayton Anderson with artist Michael Carroll's from Long-ships
to Space-ships painting, on loan form the Planetary Society

Clayton Anderson is a truly genuine guy that enjoys sharing his stories of space. He is also very proud of the fact that he is the only astronaut from Nebraska, and that he will always be the first astronaut from Nebraska. It was great to have him speak at the monument, he drew a crowd that ranged from infants to the elderly, and all seemed to enjoy the program equally. The evening ended with a watermelon feed sponsored by the Friends of Homestead and a video from the Lincoln Prairie Astronomy club. Unfortunately the star gazing had to be cancelled due to inclement weather, but it has been rescheduled for October 20th, during the Howling Homestead program.

This program is just another great example of the excellent programs that Homestead National Monument offers the surrounding communities. If you are in the area you should check out the website at www.nps.gov/home to see a list of upcoming activities and programs, including the Living Homesteader Reunion and Living History Extravaganza on Labor day weekend, Bill Nye the 'Planetary' guy on Sept 23, the Hedge Apple Festival on Oct 7 and Howling Homestead on Oct 20, along with many others.