Story: NET Foundation for Television

NET Television Premieres Homemade Astronaut 

Family lore has it that Clayton Anderson first began to yearn for space when his mom made him a tin foil astronaut costume to wear in the Ashland parade. Anderson himself recalls another incident: Christmas Eve, 1968. His parents woke him and his siblings at midnight to witness a dramatic historical event: Apollo 8's trip around the backside of the moon.

Fast forward four decades, to June 8, 2007. Anderson sits strapped into his seat aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis as the final countdown wanes and the engines roar. Then liftoff. Once they hit zero gravity, Nebraska's first astronaut unstrapped himself from the seat and floated into the next six months of his life, where he would live and work aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Premiering in June 2009, NET Television's high-definition production Homemade Astronaut: The Clay Anderson Story explores one man's journey, from dreamy-eyed child to driven college student to determined NASA astronaut, one of only a handful in the world chosen for an ISS mission. Woven throughout the program are anecdotes about Anderson's Nebraska upbringing and his family, most especially his late mother, Alice, who had a profound influence on him.  "This is really a very personal, very emotional story," explains Homemade Astronaut producer Sue Maryott. "The story of an astronaut, yes, but also the story of a Nebraska boy at heart."