Eric Anderson is an entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 and aerospace engineer known for co-founding Space Adventures

Space Adventures

Space Adventures, Ltd. is a Virginia, USA-based space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. , offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights , and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours...

, a commercial spaceflight company that brokers spaceflight experiences.

Early life and education

Anderson was raised in Colorado, the son of an American real estate entrepreneur father and an Argentine mother. As a child, Anderson had an interest in space and the exploration thereof.

Anderson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 with a degree in aerospace engineering

Aerospace engineering

Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...

.

Anderson founded the website Starport.com, which was eventually sold to Space.com

Space.com

Space.com is a space and astronomy news website. Its stories are often syndicated to other media outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo!, and USA Today.Space.com was founded by former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and Rich Zahradnik, in July 1999...

 in 2000. Anderson was also an engineer and business developer for the aerospace software firm Analytical Graphics, Inc. Anderson also held consulting and research roles at NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 for a time.

Career

Co-founding Space Adventures in 1998, Anderson serves as the company’s Chairman. After founding Space Adventures, the company assisted Dennis Tito

Dennis Tito

Dennis Anthony Tito is an Italian American engineer and multimillionaire, most widely known as the first space tourist to fund his own trip into space. In mid-2001, he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1, a visiting mission to the International Space Station...

 to become the first space tourist

Space tourism

Space Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry...

 to fly to space in 2001. The company also offers zero gravity flights, orbital spaceflight

Orbital spaceflight

An orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which a spacecraft is placed on a trajectory where it could remain in space for at least one orbit. To do this around the Earth, it must be on a free trajectory which has an altitude at perigee above...

s to the ISS

ISS

The ISS is the International Space Station.ISS may also refer to:* I See Stars, an American electronic rock band* ISS A/S, a Danish service company* Idea Star Singer, a Malayalam music reality show by Asianet TV...

, and plans to offer suborbital spaceflights and flights to circumnavigate the Moon

DSE-Alpha

Deep Space Expedition Alpha , is the name given to the mission proposed in 2005 to take the first space tourists to fly around the Moon. The mission is organized by Space Adventures Ltd., a commercial spaceflight company...

.

In 2008, Space Adventures acquired Zero Gravity Corporation

Zero Gravity Corporation

Zero Gravity Corporation is an American company based in Vienna, Virginia, formerly of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which operates weightless flights from United States airports...

 (ZERO-G), the first and only Federal Aviation Administration approved provider of weightless flights to the general public.

In 2010, Intentional Software Corporation announced that Eric Anderson would join the company as President. In this role, Anderson plans to assist orbital spaceflight client Charles Simonyi

Charles Simonyi

Charles Simonyi is a Hungarian-American computer software executive who, as head of Microsoft's application software group, oversaw the creation of Microsoft's flagship Office suite of applications. He now heads his own company, Intentional Software, with the aim of developing and marketing his...

 in his development and marketing of his intentional programming

Intentional Programming

In computer programming, intentional programming is a collection of concepts which enable software source code to reflect the precise information, called intention, which programmers had in mind when conceiving their work...

 method.

Philanthropy

Anderson is a Board Member of the X Prize Foundation

X Prize Foundation

The X PRIZE Foundation is a non-profit organization that designs and manages public competitions intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind....

  and the Koshka Foundation.

Anderson also helped found the recently created Planetary Security Foundation, with the goal to educate the public about the global risk of nuclear weapons.

In 2008, Anderson was chosen by the World Economic Forum to become a member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.

Awards and achievements

• Winner of Ernst & Young’s Greater Washington Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 2010. Rosetta Stone’s Tom Adams received the award in 2008.
• SmartCEO’s CEO of the Year, 2008. Blackboard’s Michael Chasen received the award in 2006.
• National Space Society and Space Tourism Society’s ORBIT Award, 2006. Other awardees include Buzz Aldrin and Burt Rutan.
• University of Virginia Engineering Foundation’s Outstanding Young Engineering Graduate Award, 2006. NASA astronaut, Leland Melvin, received the award in 2004.
• The World Technology Network’s World Technology Award in space sector, 2006. SpaceX’s Elon Musk received the honor in 2009.
• Co-authored the Space Tourist’s Handbook with best-selling author Joshua Piven; who was also the co-author of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. Published by Quirk Books, 2005.
• Contributor to Kids Who Think Outside the Box : Helping Your Unique Child Thrive in a Cookie-Cutter World by Stephanie Lerner. Other contributors include Michael Bloomberg and Paul McCarthney. Published by American Management Association, 2005.
• Selected by USA Today as one of the nation’s Top 40 university graduates, 1996.

Personal interests

Anderson is interested in space-based resources and energy such as asteroid mining and space-based solar power.

Anderson is also an active member of Young Presidents Organization.

Trade Association

On December 15, 2010, Anderson was selected as the next chairman of the board of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation

Commercial Spaceflight Federation

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is a private spaceflight industry group, incorporated as an industry association for the purposes of establishing ever higher levels of safety for the commercial human spaceflight industry, sharing best practices and expertise, and promoting the growth of the...

.