This isn't your average business podcast and he's not your average host.

This is the James Altature Show on the Stansbury Radio Network.

Okay, so this is James Altature and I am honored to be joined on this episode of the James

Altature Show with Clayton Anderson, former astronaut. Clay, you were an astronaut for 15 years, right?

15, that's right.

And you spent 167 days in space.

Total over two space missions.

I want to read one letter that you got just to kind of set the scene here.

You got this letter from, I guess NASA in 1996 and it says, dear Clay, thank you for applying for the astronaut candidate program.

We certainly regretted having to inform you that you were not selected for the program.

25 mission specialists and 10 pilot astronaut candidates were selected from over 2400 applicants.

Competition for the program was again extremely clean and the limited number of openings

included many high qualified individuals such as yourself from being selected.

How did you feel?

You didn't not only get this letter, you got this letter for 15 years in a row.

Well, not exactly because that year, the only reason I got the letter was because I made it far enough to get an interview.

You don't make it to that level. They don't send you anything.

They just ignore you.

Well, no, I guess that's 2400 letters. They don't want to waste the paper.

Probably they send you a card, a small index card that says we've received your application.

Thanks for playing and then we'll be in touch.

And then if you are fortunate enough to make it through all those other rounds to get to the point where they have brought you to Houston and interviewed you and talk to you and seen you and done spent money on you for tests, then you don't get selected.

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