Astronaut Anderson to talk at space law conference May 1

Nebraska native and NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson will be the featured public speaker for the second Space and Telecommunications Law Conference May 1-3 at Cornhusker Marriott, 333 S. 13th St. The event will bring space and telecommunications lawyers and industry officials to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the annual event.

Anderson's speech at 3 p.m. May 1 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St., is free and open to the public. His talk is part of three days of discussions among experts on the "new frontier" legal arena in space and telecommunications law. Signup for the conference, "Formalism, Informalism and Innovation in Space and Telecommunications Law," is under way. Visit http://spaceandtelecomlaw.unl.edu and click on "Conferences" for signup information.

In 2007, Clay Anderson spent a five-month tour of duty working aboard the International Space Station after a June 8 launch aboard Shuttle Atlantis. Docking with the station on flight day 3, he replaced Suni Williams as the Expedition 15 flight engineer and was science officer for the expedition. While onboard the ISS, Anderson performed three spacewalks, two with crewmembers, totaling 18 hours. During his spacewalks, Anderson jettisoned two pieces of space hardware, including the Early Ammonia Servicer, weighing in at more than 1,400 pounds, and a piece of "onboard support equipment," creating space satellites "Nebraska 1 and Nebraska 2." In addition, Anderson operated the Robotic Manipulator Canadarm2. Anderson returned home aboard Shuttle Discovery, landing Nov. 7 at Kennedy Space Center.

Born Feb. 23, 1959, in Omaha, Anderson considers Ashland to be his hometown. He graduated from Ashland-Greenwood High School in 1977; received a bachelor's degree in physics from Hastings College in 1981 and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University in 1983. Anderson joined the Johnson Space Center in 1983 in the Mission Planning and Analysis Division where he performed rendezvous and proximity operations trajectory designs for early Space Shuttle and Space Station missions.

In 1988, he moved to the Mission Operations Directorate as a flight design manager, leading the trajectory design team for the Galileo planetary mission. In 1989, Anderson was chosen supervisor of the MOD Ascent Flight Design Section and following reorganization, the Flight Design Engineering Office of the Flight Design and Dynamics Division. In 1993, he was named chief of the Flight Design Branch. From 1996 until June 1998, Anderson held the post of manager, Emergency Operations Center, NASA Johnson Space Center. He was selected as a mission specialist by NASA in June 1998.

UNL is the first and only law school in the nation to offer a master of laws degree specializing in space and telecommunications law, beginning fall 2008. It will be the only master of law degree in space and telecommunications law in the world taught in English. The law specialization focuses on both governmental and commercial activities in space, and training lawyers to handle security, risk management, traffic management, licensing, financing and insurance issues. Space tourism and other commercial activities are expected to boom, while national security and international interests remain a top concern, particularly as more countries, such as China, Japan and Australia, develop robust space programs.

"Regulation is incredibly complex for telecom and for space," said Steve Willborn, dean of the College of Law. "Waves are limited, sold and can come into conflict with each other. By nature, it requires a lot of regulation. It's becoming a vibrant area of our economy."

The unique conference is the second at the University of Nebraska College of Law and includes an opening addresses by Richard Russell, U.S. ambassador to the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference and Jonathan Galloway, vice president of the International Institute of Space Law. Lunch speakers are Helen Dominici, international bureau chief for the Federal Communications Commission and Tim Hughes, general counsel for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).

"It's a testament to the long-standing reputation of the College of Law, and the increasing recognition of the space and telecommunications law program, that we have been able to attract such high-level speakers once again," said Matthew Schaefer, professor of law and director of the Space Law Program. "In Professors Frans Von Der Dunk and Marvin Ammori, we have two incredibly well-respected faculty members, both nationally and internationally, that give our program immediate credibility."

Von Der Dunk and Ammori will also speak at the conference.