Michael P. Anderson Status: Lost In Flight 12/28/1959 – 2/1/2003 Nationality: American Type: Government Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Michael Phillip Anderson was a United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. Anderson and his six fellow crew members were killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the craft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Anderson served as the payload commander and lieutenant colonel in charge of science experiments on the Columbia. Anderson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.