Early Life and Education
Anderson was raised in Littleton, Colorado, by his father, an American real estate entrepreneur, and his Argentine mother. As a child, he showed an early interest space exploration, and read Cosmos by Carl Sagan in third grade. Anderson also developed strengths in computers and mathematics: by fifth grade he wrote computer programs and by his freshman year of high school had completed all of the math classes that the school offered.
He attended Columbine High School and graduated in 1992. Early in high school, Anderson intended to join the Air Force as a pilot, with the goal of eventually becoming an astronaut. However, his diagnosed myopia would have prevented him from being able to pass the physical examinations to enter the Air Force. Anderson decided to attend the University of Virginia and major in aerospace engineering and computer science in order to study space technologies and continue his interest in space exploration. At the university, he began a chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. In 1996, he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering and computer science, and first in his class in the university's engineering school.
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