AerE graduate Clay Anderson has now completed three spacewalks as a flight engineer working on the International Space Station (ISS). On August 15, Anderson and Rick Mastracchio, flight specialist from the space shuttle Endeavour, worked outside of the space station for about five hours rearranging equipment to prepare for the addition of a new section to the ISS later this year. Last Saturday, the two astronauts installed an antenna and retrieved two materials science experiments for Endeavour to take back to Earth for analysis. Originally scheduled for six hours, Saturday’s spacewalk was shortened to five hours when NASA officials decided Endeavour should return to Earth a day early due to concerns about Hurricane Dean. Endeavour undocked from the ISS on Sunday and landed at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday.
To learn more about Anderson’s ISS assignment, visit the NASA International Space Station Web site. Images from the ISS are available on the Expedition 15 Gallery.
To read about AerE alumni and undergraduates at NASA, see Alums contribute to NASA mission and Undergrads share NASA co-op experiences at JSC.