Welcome to the LSE Class of '65 Website

• For narrative highlights of the 60th Reunion - check the Recap Page AND its Attachments.
• For photo highlights of the 60th Reunion - check the Photo Gallery Pages FOR Classmates, Features & Tours.
• For previous "HAPPENING IN LINCOLN" postings see the archives page.

Happening in Lincoln---- 
Remembering Nebraska’s Own Astronaut

Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, and returned to Earth on April 10, 2026. The nearly 10-day crewed lunar flyby lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and concluded successfully with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

On the sixth day, 248,655 miles from Earth, Astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch ventured farther from home than any human being who has ever lived.

Have any astronauts been born in Nebraska? The answer is YES. Clayton Anderson is from Ashland (between Lincoln & Omaha), NE.

According to his website, Astro Clay, Anderson spent 167 days in space and 38 hours and 28 minutes in executing six spacewalks.

He applied 15 times before NASA selected him as an astronaut in 1998, and he spent 30 years working for NASA; 15 as an engineer and then 15 as an astronaut.

In this file photo astronaut Clayton Anderson, STS-131 mission specialist, participates in an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit fit check in the Space Station Airlock Test Article (SSATA) in the Crew Systems Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Nebraska astronaut Clayton Anderson unfurls the Nebraska flag he took with him on his Space Shuttle Atlantis flight. Anderson was in the Capitol Rotunda in April 2011, presenting the Legislature with mementos of his space trip.

Astronaut Clayton Anderson watches as a water bubble floats in the mid deck of space shuttle Discovery during the STS-131 mission on April 12, 2010. Note that his image in the bubble is upside down because the bubble refracted the light.

NASA Astronaut Clayton Anderson, STS-131 mission specialist, participates in the mission's third and final session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station in 2010.

Astronaut Clayton Anderson waves to a parade crowd welcoming him home to Ashland, NE in 2008 after his first space flight.

NASA Astronaut Clayton Anderson, STS-131 mission specialist, is pictured on the mid deck of space shuttle Discovery while docked with the International Space Station in 2010.

President Bush (left) greets Astronaut Clayton Anderson at Ellington Field in Houston on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007, after Anderson's first return from space.

Astronaut Clayton Anderson takes Ashland-Greenwood elementary students through a shuttle flight, including weightlessness, in 2000.

Clayton Anderson signs autographs for students during the 13th annual Lincoln Public Schools Science Fair held at the Pershing Center in 2008. 

At Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, crew members take time out from their training to pose for a group portrait. Clayton Anderson is at the far right. Space shuttle Discovery awaits liftoff in the background.

Retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson gives a speech during the annual federal legislative summit on Aug. 25, 2022, at Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum.

(Next Up: Nebraska's finalists for NASA's 1985–1986 "Teacher in Space" program.)