Michael P. Anderson, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (died 2003)

Michael Phillip Anderson was a United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. He 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. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.