Daniel C. Burbank

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Daniel Burbank
Daniel Burbank
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on May 1, 1996
( 16th NASA Group )
Calls: 3 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		September 8, 2000
Landing of the
last space flight: 		April 27, 2012
Time in space: 188d 21h 49min
EVA inserts: 1
EVA total duration: 7h 11min
retired on June 29, 2018
Space flights

Daniel Christopher "Dan" Burbank (born July 27, 1961 in Manchester , Connecticut ) is a former American astronaut .

Life

Burbank grew up in the small town of Tolland , where his parents still live today. After graduating from Tolland High School in 1979, he enlisted in the US Coast Guard (USCG). This paid for his studies at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London . In May 1985 he passed his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and began his service as a deck officer and law enforcement officer on the USCGC Gallatin. This Coast Guard cutter is 150 feet long and stationed in South Carolina . After a year and a half, he was trained as a helicopter pilot in Florida and graduated with top honors in February of the following year.

Burbank was then transferred to Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City in North Carolina . At first he was a pilot in air rescue on Sikorsky helicopters of the type HH-3F "Pelican" and HH-60J "Jayhawk" and later also an instructor. At the same time he was preparing to study as an aerospace engineer. He attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida . This oldest still existing aviation college (founded in 1925) awarded him a master’s degree in 1990 .

In July 1992, Burbank left USCG's Elizabeth City base. He came to Cape Cod , Massachusetts , where he worked as a pilot, technician and instructor on the HH-60J helicopter. Three years later he was transferred to Coast Guard Air Station Sitka in Alaska . In addition to his role as a pilot and technician, he trained his colleagues there in the wild in theoretical and practical courses on survival techniques. In total, he can look back on over 1,800 deployments in the USCG - 300 of them as an air rescuer.

Astronaut activity

Astronomy and space travel were originally nothing more than a hobby for Burbank. Its real destination was the sea. He was still in elementary school when he already knew that he wanted to save people's lives one day. The decision to become a space traveler was made late and is associated with a name: Bruce Melnick - the first astronaut selected from the ranks of the Coast Guard in 1987 - had one day paid a visit to the Elizabeth City base. Burbank had a chat with Melnick and was so impressed that he applied to NASA.

Right the first time Burbank came into the final round of the applicants and was established in January 1992 after Houston ( Texas ) to the Johnson Space Center invited (JSC) for tests and interviews. Nevertheless, it was initially rejected. It was only with his third application that he finally succeeded and was selected as an astronaut.

Burbank was presented to the public with NASA's 16th astronaut group in May 1996, which with a strength of 35 candidates formed the largest group since the legendary "Thirty Five New Guys" of 1978. He was one of a total of 2,432 candidates who met the formal selection criteria. This resulted in 123 finalists who came to the JSC between October 1995 and February 1996 for the mandatory tests.

In mid-August 1996, the 16th group began their two-year basic training at the JSC. After that, Burbank was a full-fledged mission specialist and worked in the planning department of the astronauts office. He was entrusted with the integration of hardware and software for the International Space Station (ISS) and traveled constantly between Houston and Moscow . In addition, in November 1998 he took part in a conference of leading scientists (geologists, biologists, chemists) at the JSC. Together with representatives from NASA (mission planners, trainers, astronauts) they advised on future space flights to the planet Mars.

Burbank made its first space flight with STS-106 in September 2000. The preparation meant a special challenge for him, not only because he was a newcomer, but because the time available, only half a year, was less than half as long as usual. It was not until the spring of 2000 that it was decided to add the mission to the ISS to the program. During the flight, Burbank helped reload the roughly three tons of equipment that the Atlantis brought to equip the space station. He also supported his colleagues Ed Lu and Yuri Malentschenko from the cockpit when they carried out a space exit.

After the flight, Burbank worked as a liaison officer at the control center in Houston until he began training for his second mission. He was appointed Mission Specialist for Shuttle Company STS-115 in February 2002 , which began September 9, 2006. The crew of the Atlantis assembled the 16-tonne P3 / P4 element in six days . The space station thus received the second of four solar modules. During that flight, Burbank conducted an spacecraft mission. Together with the Canadian Steve MacLean , he prepared the two solar cell surfaces for their work in seven hours by removing the protective covering and transport fastenings. The mission ended after twelve days.

In October 2009, Burbank was nominated for a long stay aboard the ISS. He started on November 14, 2011 with Soyuz TMA-22 and works as a flight engineer on ISS Expedition 29 . After the previous ISS commander Mike Fossum left the ISS, Burbank took command of ISS expedition 30 . The landing took place on April 27, 2012.

Burbank left NASA on June 29, 2018.

Private

Burbank is married with two children.

See also

Web links

Commons : Daniel C. Burbank  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NASA and its International Partners Assign Space Station Crews. In: Release 09-233. NASA, October 7, 2009, accessed October 14, 2009 .
  2. ^ NASA: Astronaut Dan Burbank Retires from NASA. June 29, 2018, accessed June 30, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Burbank, Daniel C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burbank, Daniel Christopher; Burbank, Dan (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester , Connecticut