[citation needed] Anderson was raised in Littleton, Colorado, by his father, an American real estate entrepreneur, and his Argentine mother.

[2] Early in high school, Anderson intended to join the Air Force as a pilot, with the goal of eventually becoming an astronaut.

[3] In 1994, while Anderson was at the University of Virginia, he interned for the founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, Peter Diamandis, in Washington, D.C.

While there he helped organize the Ansari X Prize, a competition for the first private-sector crewed space flight,[4] and projects for Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G).

[5] The following year, Anderson was selected as Virginia's representative, and one of approximately 24 undergraduates chosen to take part, in the NASA Academy's student summer program.

[3] During the program he carried out research at Goddard Space Flight Center and met key individuals involved in the aerospace industry, including several astronauts, then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin and the CEOs of Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences Corporation.

[5] Anderson's first job after graduating was as an engineer and business developer at Analytical Graphics, an aerospace software company based in Philadelphia.

[3] In 1999, he reached an agreement with the Russian space agency to purchase seats on the Soyuz on behalf of private citizens.

[5][3] In 2008, Smart CEO reported that Anderson's company was "the only firm in the world to have sold space flights that have actually been realized".

[23] He is also a trustee of the Koshka Foundation and Seattle's Museum of Flight and a member of the Board of Governors for the National Space Society.