Eric C. Anderson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1974 (age 51–52) |
| Education | University of Virginia (BS) |
| Occupations | Chairman ofSpace Adventures, Ltd.; CEO of Intentional Software Corporation; Co-Founder of Planetary Power, Inc. |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Spouse | Inessa Anderson |
| Children | 4 |
Eric C. Anderson (born 1974) is an Americanentrepreneur andaerospace engineer. He is the co-founder and chairman ofSpace Adventures Ltd., the firstcommercial spaceflight company, which has arranged for eight missions for privately funded individuals to theInternational Space Station since 2001. Anderson is widely credited as having established the market for commercial spaceflight. He is also a founding partner of Space Angels Network, CEO ofIntentional Software Corporation, co-founder and chairman of Planetary Power, Inc., co-founder and former co-chairman ofPlanetary Resources and chairman of Personal.com andBooster Fuels.[citation needed]
Anderson was raised inLittleton, Colorado, by his father, an American real estate entrepreneur, and his Argentine mother.[1]
He attendedColumbine High School and graduated in 1992.[2] Early in high school, Anderson intended to join theAir Force as a pilot, with the goal of eventually becoming an astronaut.[1][2] However, his diagnosedmyopia would have prevented him from being able to pass the physical examinations to enter the Air Force.[1][3][4] Anderson decided to attend theUniversity of Virginia and major inaerospace engineering and computer science in order to study space technologies and continue his interest in space exploration.[5][2] At the university, he began a chapter ofStudents for the Exploration and Development of Space.[4] In 1996, he graduatedmagna cum laude with aB.S. in aerospace engineering and computer science,[6] and first in his class in the university's engineering school.[3]
In 1994, while Anderson was at the University of Virginia, he interned for the founder and chairman of theX Prize Foundation,Peter Diamandis, inWashington, D.C. While there he helped organize theAnsari X Prize, a competition for the first private-sector crewed space flight,[4] and projects forZero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G).[5] The following year, Anderson was selected as Virginia's representative, and one of approximately 24 undergraduates chosen to take part, in theNASA Academy's student summer program.[3] During the program he carried out research atGoddard Space Flight Center and met key individuals involved in the aerospace industry, including several astronauts, then-NASA AdministratorDan Goldin and the CEOs ofLockheed Martin andOrbital Sciences Corporation.[5]
Anderson's first job after graduating was as an engineer and business developer at Analytical Graphics, an aerospace software company based inPhiladelphia.[5][2] His role with the company involved developing software for space missions.[4] In 1997, Anderson founded Starport.com, a website that provided the public with information about space travel. He sold the website toSpace.com in 2000.[2][7]
While Anderson was at the NASA Academy program in 1995, he began thinking seriously about space tourism, and in particular decided that NASA would not be able to develop a program that could take civilians into space at a "reasonable cost".[3] In collaboration with Peter Diamandis, with whom Anderson had interned in 1994, and adventure travel operatorMike McDowell, Anderson developed the initial idea to create a space tourism company,Space Adventures.[1][4]
He co-founded Space Adventures with Diamandis and McDowell in 1997, initially funded by $250,000 raised from Diamandis, McDowell and other investors. Anderson became the company's founding director[5] and vice president, and set up company operations in his townhouse inArlington, Virginia,[4] making Space Adventures the world's first space tourism company.[1][8]
Anderson initially arranged for clients to experience flights to "the edge of space" inMiG-25 fighter jets,[1] airplane flights to experience weightlessness, and tours of Russian Soyuz launches inKazakhstan.[4] He continued to look for opportunities to place clients on an actual space flight,[1] including commissioning a report from theRussian Federal Space Agency to study whether theSoyuz space vehicle could transport tourists to theInternational Space Station (ISS).[3] In 1999, he reached an agreement with the Russian space agency to purchase seats on the Soyuz on behalf of private citizens.[4] He sold the first seat to money managerDennis Tito for $20 million.[1][2][3] In 2001, Tito was part of a group of astronauts who were launched into orbit and visited the ISS,[9] the first time a private citizen had paid to fly to orbit.[10]
In his work with Space Adventures, Anderson has been widely credited as the first to monetize spaceflight and demonstrate the viability of a commercial market for space travel, by proving there is demand for space tourism.[5][3] In 2008,Smart CEO reported that Anderson's company was "the only firm in the world to have sold space flights that have actually been realized".[5] As of 2011[update], Anderson has sold nearly half a billion in space missions, and his company had arranged for all seven missions of private citizens, including Dennis Tito,Guy Laliberte andCharles Simonyi to visit the ISS.[11][12]
Anderson has stated that he sees tourism as a catalyst for thecommercialization of space through encouraging development of cheaper transportation into space, which will eventually allow humanity to develop and colonize space, including the development of natural resources beyond earth.[4][9][11][13] In an interview withSmart CEO, he said that he believes that it is "imperative" to explore space for humanity's long-term survival.[5]
In addition to his role as chairman of Space Adventures, Anderson holds a number of other professional positions. He is the chairman of Planetary Power, Inc., a renewable energy company he co-founded in 2007, which focuses on developing affordable renewable energy technology.[14] Anderson is also the president and CEO ofIntentional Software Corporation, a software development company founded byCharles Simonyi that develops solutions to make creatingapplications more intuitive and accessible to people who are not experienced incomputer programming.[1] He joined Intentional as its president in September 2010, to work with Simonyi on marketing his intentional programming method.[6] Later that year, on December 15, 2010, he was chosen as the next chairman of the board of theCommercial Spaceflight Federation, an organization that promotes the development of the commercial spaceflight industry.[15] Anderson is also the co-founder and former co-chairman ofPlanetary Resources, Inc., a 2010s company that developed technology with the aim of carrying outexploration of asteroids and mining them for resources including platinum and other precious metals.[16][17][18]
Anderson has appeared as a guest speaker and lecturer at conferences including theWorld Economic Forum inDavos, Switzerland, the Forbes Global CEO Conference,[1] and aTEDGlobal where he spoke about how mining asteroids could create profit from space travel.[19] He has also contributed to two books,Kids Who Think Outside the Box by Stephanie Lerner[20] andThe Space Tourist’s Handbook, a guide to space tourism that he co-authored.[21]
Anderson is a board member of theX Prize Foundation,[11][22] and a founder of thePlanetary Security Foundation,[7] which aims to educate the public about the global risks of nuclear weapons, and advocates for eliminating all nuclear weapons.[23] He is also a trustee of the Koshka Foundation and Seattle'sMuseum of Flight and a member of the Board of Governors for theNational Space Society.[24][25]
In 2008, he became a member of the Young Global Leaders of theWorld Economic Forum.[26] He is also a member of theYoung Presidents' Organization.[11]
Anderson has received a number of awards and honors during his career. In 1996, he was named byUSA Today as one of its US Top 40 University Graduates.[11] In 2006, he received the University of Virginia Engineering Foundation’s Outstanding Young Engineering Graduate Award,[11][27] the National Space Society and Space Tourism Society’s ORBIT Award[28] and the World Technology Network’s "World Technology Award" in its space category.[29] In 2010 he was named one ofErnst & Young's entrepreneurs of the year.[6]
Anderson lives inBellevue, Washington with his wife Inessa and their four children.[4][7][30]