Clayton C. Anderson

10/20/2026

Apollo 11's lunar module hatch was designed to open only from the inside, it had no exterior handle or latch. The module was built under brutal mass limits and every extra piece of hardware reduced what the astronauts could bring back. That assumption held for the engineering baseline: both astronauts exit, do the EVA, return, and close up from inside. The lockout scenario only occurs if the hatch swings fully shut and seals while both crew members are outside—an unlikely, but not impossible scenario. Buzz Aldrin recounted having to be careful not to pull the hatch all the way closed after following Neil Armstrong onto the Moon's surface. The subsequent Apollo missions used the same basic hatch design and luckily never had a problem. Thankfully the design was changed for Artemis missions; the Orion spacecraft was built with both exterior and interior mechanisms.

10/16/2026

Great memories…

10/15/2026

Space exploration runs on delays the way rockets run on fuel. When a program has almost no slack, slips aren’t surprises — they should be expected. It’s physics.

Artemis seems to present itself like a stack of dominoes on a windy table. If one-piece falls, the rest may start to lean. If a lander is late (SpaceX and Blue Origin), the rocket, most likely, will sit on the pad with nowhere to go. If a spacesuit interface changes, the lander’s hatch, airlock, and timeline may all have to change with it. Politics can add more dominoes. Launch dates get announced before hardware exists. Budgets shift mid-build. Contractors, countries, pads, landers, rovers, and suits all must show up at nearly the same instant — or the whole stack wobbles. Today, the margin seems awfully close to zero, and the odds keep stacking. But this is what NASA does…, as evidenced by the Apollo missions of the 70’s. We’ll work with all of our partners to keep pushing and “tip” the impossible into possible!

10/13/2026

Today, NASA's only certified crew capsule (the only way to get astronauts to space), the SpaceX Dragon, is said to be retiring and taken out of service by 2030. SpaceX is planning to go “all in” on Starship. For me, it's an understandable move, given the planned ISS retirement and the present lack of an ISS-follow on commercial space station. Apparently, from their business-perspective, there isn't much reason to keep making them.

That would leave us with Boeing's Starliner capsule (Yes, this is the same one that couldn't bring the astronauts home a couple of years ago…) as the only current U.S. option for crew transportation. Given its previous performance, it does not appear to be the ideal backup, but NASA continues to push Starliner toward the finish line by pitching in to help fix the capsule's issues.

The next flight scheduled will not carry astronauts. It will launch as a cargo test to enable validation of modifications to its thruster system, illustrating their valve leak fixes actually work. If that goes well, NASA plans to buy more Starliner crew missions…, and will need to help certify it on a new launch rocket given the SpaceX push to Starship. While it previously flew on the Atlas V, availability of those vehicles is decreasing with time. To think that all this time we were worried about a space station gap! Man oh man…, there’s never a dull moment in human spaceflight!

10/11/2026

10/11/2026

You’re gonna LOVE these books from ®️!!

10/08/2026

Most people realize that living in space can be a big adjustment. Often, it's the little things that surprise you. From something as simple as clipping your fingernails or removing your socks after a long day can become a bit complicated. On Earth, everything falls (gravity). As you clip your nails, you can flick them into a trash can, or sweep them from a flat surface to a vacuumable floor. Removing your socks is always pretty simple, and the dead skin on the bottoms of your feet stay there. In orbit, it’s not the same. Clipping finger and toenails with a standard clipper we’re all familiar with, gives them a thrust (velocity) that can shoot them screaming through a module. Removal of socks, from seldom-used feet bottoms, releases hundreds (thousands?) of dead skin cells, and they float too!

All of this “human debris,” along with other type of debris (onion peels, garlic peels, grapefruit rinds, etc.), can easily “get away from you” with the potential to drift into non-optimal places. Protecting expensive equipment like computer innards, or a healthy set of astronaut eyes, is paramount. So, our operational surface, i.e., cutting board, wall, ceiling, floor, or handrail (and temporary trashcan) requires a strip of duct tape. Wrapped upon itself to create a sticky side up loop, then pressed down on the table or surface allows you to “trap” the debris for disposal later. The process can be slow –I never peeled an onion or piece of garlic, but I did manicure my nails-- and corralling the debris into the tape is a part of station life. Failure to capture however, was often averted (for me anyway) by the powerful environmental control system and its constant airflow. Vacuuming “lost” debris was a weekly Saturday morning function, and I was always surprised at what I found clinging to the inward pulling vents (I found strands of Sunita Williams’ hair every single Saturday!!). When the debris becomes overwhelming (it rarely did for our crew of three), the duct tape solution could be rolled up like a burrito and secured in a trash container. Managing that process can be a pain, but it beats chasing food and debris around - like the time my wife sent me some Boy Scouts caramel popcorn. Opening the bag was a debris disaster!! 😆

10/06/2026

Happy - the theme is Rocket Revolution 🚀
What do you think is the most impressive rocket ever built?
For me it's got to be the Starship being developed by SpaceX and our friend Elon Musk. While they have a way to go, the ship itself is incredibly impressive, and their accomplishments thus far are monumental. I wish them all the best to get where they “hope” to go, and a full crew of humans on that thing will be somewhat breathtaking. And oh…, by the way, I still want to know the number of toilets that are planned for that thing!
📷 John Kraus