ASHLAND — His mother dug out one of her old hat boxes with a round lid.

She cut a hole in the side so her son little Clay Anderson could see where he was going as he marched in the Stir-Up Days kiddie parade. Then she covered his arms, legs and body in tinfoil.

“I thought it was wonderful,” said Alice Anderson, even though her son only got second place in the costume contest. 

Money was tight back in the ’60s and the family of five couldn’t afford a camera, so she doesn’t have a picture of her middle child wrapped up like a space toy.

He’ll be suited up again on Friday, when he steps on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and, with the help of two solid rocket boosters, blasts into the heavens at more than 17,000 miles per hour — if weather conditions are right and there are no mechanical problems.

Anderson, born in Omaha and reared in Ashland, will be the first native Nebraskan to fly into space.

“I’m honored. I’m very — extremely proud, and I hope that all those people in Nebraska will follow along and share in the adventure,” he said last week in a phone interview from his office at the Johnson Space Center near Houston.

The tinfoil costume has been replaced by a bulky, pressurized, orange space suit designed to protect Anderson as Atlantis soars into space. His journey will take him to the International Space Station, orbiting more than 200 miles above Earth.

Anderson will be one of seven crew members on board STS-117. Its mission: to deliver the second and third starboard truss segments and another pair of solar arrays for the space station.

When the shuttle heads for home 11 days later, he’ll stay behind to live and work with an international space station crew for about five months. 

During that time, he will perform three space walks and operate the station’s robotic arm to move a module to make room for another utility module called “Harmony.” It’s scheduled to be taken up by STS-120 in October, a month before Anderson is scheduled to come home.

As a flight engineer, Anderson will have plenty of other duties, too, but he plans to involve Nebraskans, especially kids, in his space odyssey. 

He wants to challenge the kids to “run around the world” with him as he exercises on a treadmill. He also will try to read names of the more than 500 Nebraska towns and cities as he orbits Earth.

“I haven’t figured out how many towns I have to name a day based on how many days I will be in space, but it will be more than one,” he said.

Who would have thought a kid from Ashland would achieve his lifelong dream and become a real live astronaut?

Just about everybody who has ever met Clayton C. Anderson.

Bette Starns, who taught vocal music to all three Anderson children — Lorie, Clayton and Kirby — knew early on that Clay would achieve his goal.

“I became well aware that he would do it someday. I think it meant so much to him to be an astronaut.”

Certainly, his mother had a hand in guiding her son to the stars. Whenever there was a space launch, Alice Anderson sat her kids down in front of the black-and-white TV to watch the historic event, even if it meant having them lose some sleep.

One of those special TV moments was in 1968, when Apollo 8 flew to the dark side of the moon and communication with NASA controllers was lost. Then the Andersons and millions of other viewers heard a familiar and distinctive beep known back then as the Quindar tone.

“When I first heard that and I heard them talk again, it was kind of a chilling feeling for me,” Clay Anderson recalled. “And it just seemed cool to be able to do that. And so one of the dreams I’ve had forever is to become an astronaut and be able to go into space.”

The road to joining the elite astronaut corps was not easy for Anderson, who turned 48 this year.

He got his first introduction to NASA as a summer intern while pursuing a physics degree at Hastings College. He was sold on the place and knew that’s what he wanted to do with his life. He graduated with honors from Hastings College in 1981 and enrolled at Iowa State University. 

After graduating with a master’s degree in aerospace engineering in 1983, he joined the Johnson Space Center and worked on trajectory designs for the early space shuttle and space station missions. He later became a flight design manager for the Galileo planetary mission and served as back-up for the Magellan planetary mission. In 1993, he was named chief of the flight design branch and later served as manager of the space center’s Emergency Operations Center.

Although he’s held many jobs with NASA, Anderson never lost sight of his lifelong dream.

He applied to be an astronaut 15 times and was finally selected as a mission specialist in June 1998.

Friends and family use words like perseverance, focused and determined to describe Anderson and his quest.

Jeff Raikes, who was a year ahead of him at Ashland-Greenwood Senior High School, is president of Microsoft’s business division.

“He was an outstanding student and an outstanding athlete,” Raikes said in an interview from Seattle. “He was very well-rounded as well.”

Sometimes, Clay Anderson was too studious for his own good.

“He would do his math at lunch time,” said his mother. “That was kind of scary, and it didn’t sit well with the other kids.”

Said Raikes: “He has an absolute tremendous attitude. He is one of the most positive people you will ever meet.”

Clay’s younger brother, Kirby, who does genetic testing at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Human Genetics Laboratory in Omaha, echoed that sentiment.

“He’s one of those guys who sets his mind on something — he finds a way to make it happen. I tell everybody we’re a lot alike, but he’s a lot smarter and more driven.”

A large contingent of Clay Anderson’s family and friends will gather at the Kennedy Space Center near Orlando, Fla., to watch the STS-117 shuttle take off on Friday.

Obviously, the family is anxious, because astronauts have died on such missions. The most recent tragedy occurred Feb. 1, 2003, when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry, killing all seven crew members.

Commander Michael Anderson, who was in charge of the science mission, was a 1990 graduate of Creighton University and a close friend of Clayton Anderson.

“There is inherent risk in everything we do. Obviously, getting on a rocket that’s loaded with volatile fuel is risky,” Clay Anderson said. “When Columbia happened — we have fixed many of those problems such that my shuttle or our shuttle will be a lot safer than the shuttles that came before it.

“So I accept the risk as all astronauts do. And we don’t focus on that risk. We focus on accomplishing the mission. So to me, it’s not something that I worry about or think about.”

Clay Anderson was a family escort for Columbia and was there to support grieving relatives.

He was there for lift-off, too. It was the first time he had seen a shuttle launch in person, and he said the experience had a huge effect on him, his wife, Susan, daughter Sutton, and son Cole.

They’ve talked about what happened to the Columbia astronauts, he said, and he told them they did not die in vain.

“I also tell them that this is a dream I’ve had since I was a child and now that dream comes to fruition. And the sacrifices that may take place are worth it to me,” he said. “Obviously, I can’t fathom how they would have to deal with any kind of tragedy. But again, we don’t dwell on that. We dwell on the positive aspects and the benefits and the good things that will come out of this.”

Alice Anderson, 77, is more concerned about her son’s five-month separation from his family than the space flight itself, even though Anderson plans to keep in touch via e-mails and satellite phone. At the request of her son, she bought a laptop, her first, and is learning how to use it.

“He could get killed walking across the street,” she said. “Their marriage is very important. Their family is very important. That’s what bothers me.”

Clay’s sister Lorie Hartzell, a case worker for the state Health and Human Services System office in Hastings, said, “You know we face our mortality every single day. Nobody knows what’s in store for them. I believe God has a plan and he’s going to take care of Clay one way or another. This is his dream … so we’re just going to trust in the Lord and just enjoy this with Clay and his family.”

Ashland residents will be thinking about Anderson, too, and many will watch the shuttle launch on the Internet.

“He’s one of their own,” said Alice Anderson. “They cheered for him when he was a kid in sports. He’s a winner, a winner.”

Jim Anderson, Clay’s uncle and a planning specialist for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency in Lincoln, is working with Ashland officials to string a large banner across the street near the post office, wishing Anderson “good luck and godspeed.” His high school also plans to have something on its marquee.

“I think it’s terrific,” said Ashland resident Angela Cotton. “The whole town is pretty proud of him.”

George Snodgrass, 72, said he thinks it’s pretty cool that someone from a small Nebraska town will venture into space.

 “The odds of any one person doing that are mighty slim,” he said.

There is one person who won’t be in Florida to watch Anderson lift off. His father, John “Jack” Anderson, died in 1984 of a stroke at 53.

Jack Anderson lived long enough to see his three kids graduate from college, but he never saw any of his grandchildren or his son’s accomplishments at NASA. 

Alice Anderson has few photos of her husband and the children, but she does have a cassette tape of him singing “We Three Kings” with them.

“I hold it and look at it for awhile,” she said. “It’s just hard to play.”

She and other family members say Jack Anderson is a big reason Clay was so motivated and determined to become an astronaut.

When asked if he has a hero, Clay Anderson responds: “My dad.”

And Friday, the Space Shuttle Atlantis’ target launch date, is his father’s birthday.

Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at 473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.