posted 06-29-2018 12:11 PM               

Astronaut Dan Burbank Retires from NASA

NASA Astronaut Dan Burbank, who spent 188 days in space over three missions, is retiring from the agency. Friday, June 29, will be his last day with NASA.

"Dan has been a good friend since we began astronaut candidate training together," said Pat Forrester, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "He's done extraordinary work for the agency and has been a valuable member of the NASA team for more than 20 years. He will be missed and we wish him all the best moving forward."

Burbank began his career in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he achieved the rank of captain and logged more than 4,000 flight hours, primarily in Coast Guard helicopters. He flew more than 2,000 missions – including more than 300 search and rescue missions – before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1996.

After becoming an astronaut, Burbank flew his first mission aboard space shuttle Atlantis in 2000, a mission specialist on STS-106. He and his crewmates prepared the then-fledgling International Space Station for its first crew, which would arrive two months later. They stayed 12 days and delivered more than three tons of supplies.

He returned to the space station, again aboard Atlantis, for the STS-115 mission in 2006. On that mission, which also lasted 12 days, he and his crewmates delivered a set of electricity-generating solar arrays, which Burbank helped to install during a 7-hour and 11-minute spacewalk.

Burbank's final trip to the space station lasted more than five months. In November 2011, Burbank launched aboard Soyuz TMA-22 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and served as a flight engineer for Expedition 29 and commander of Expedition 30. He and his crew completed 23 major hardware upgrades and six major software upgrades to the command and data handling system, hosted five visiting spacecraft and took part in nearly 200 science experiments before returning to Earth in April 2012.

Between his space missions, Burbank served in a number of technical and managerial positions, most recently as chief of the vehicle integration and test office in the Flight Operations Directorate at NASA Johnson.

Burbank was born in Manchester, Connecticut, but considers Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, to be his home. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1985, and a master's degree in Aeronautical Science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1990.

posted 08-18-2022 08:19 PM               

Former Astronaut Returns to Teach at U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Former astronaut and retired Capt. Dan Burbank is returning to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to serve as a Professor of Practice in the Mechanical Engineering program.

Burbank is one of two Coast Guard officers to have ever served as an astronaut. As a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions and one long duration mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), he has logged a total of 188 days in space.

Dr. Sharon Zelmanowitz, the Dean of Engineering and Cyber Systems at the Academy called Burbank, "a true innovator and a passionate educator who brings a wealth of experience to enrich our curriculum and engage in interdisciplinary research on resilience in challenging environments."

As a Coast Guard aviator, Burbank served at Coast Guard Air Stations in Elizabeth City, N.C., Cape Cod, Mass., and Sitka, Alaska. He has logged over 4,000 flight hours and flown more than 2,000 missions, including over 300 search and rescue missions.

Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1996, Burbank completed two years of training and evaluation before assignment to his first space flight assignment.

He served as Mission Specialist aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on two 12-day missions, STS-106 and STS-115, where he logged seven and a half hours of EVA (spacewalk) time. Later, he travelled aboard the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft to the ISS where he served as Flight Engineer for ISS Expedition 29 and as Commander of ISS Expedition 30, which were long duration missions that began in November, 2011 and ended in April, 2012.

Burbank is a native of Tolland, Conn., and graduated from the Coast Guard Academy as an Electrical Engineering major in 1985. He has a master's degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and previously served as an engineering faculty member at the Academy from 2007 to 2009, where he taught astronomy, aerodynamics, and statics & engineering design.

Most recently Burbank served as a Professor and the Brigadier General Mick Erdle Endowed Chair in Engineering Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy from 2021 to 2022.

"Returning to the academy to help train and educate the future leaders of the United States Coast Guard is a dream come true for me," Burbank said. "I'm proud to have been a part of this great service and especially happy to return 'home' to the Coast Guard. These young women and men are brilliant and supremely talented and it's inspiring to spend these important years with them as they prepare to build the Coast Guard of the future. This is the best job on – or off – the planet!"