Horizons Online Edition

Issue date: 9/14/06 Section: News

Daniel Burbank, a graduate of Embry-Riddle's satellite campus in Langley Center, Virginia is fitted for his Shuttle Launch/Entry flight suit.

When the space shuttle Atlantis launched on Sept. 9, 2006 after over four and a half years of planning and training and four launch delays, one graduate of Embry-Riddle finally got to experience the thrill of spaceflight. Again.

Burbank graduated from the university's Langley Center at Langley, Virginia in 1990 with a Master of Aeronautical Science degree.

Commander Daniel C. Burbank launched aboard Atlantis as mission robotics specialist of STS-115. Burbank has already logged 283 hours and 4.9 million miles in space aboard STS-106. Before logging hours as an actual astronaut for NASA, he worked on many technical teams assisting the International Space Station and as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) in which he served as the spacecraft communicator for earlier shuttle flights and the ISS.

Burbank received his commission in the United States Coast Guard in 1985 and has logged over 3,500 hours, mostly in Coast Guard helicopters such as HH-60J Jayhawks, serving as both an aircraft commander and an instructor pilot. After receiving his degree from ERAU and further training in the Coast Guard, Burbank served as a Rotary Wing Engineering and Aeronautical Engineering Officer at various Coast Guard Air Stations in Massachusetts and Alaska. In total, Burbank has flown over 1,800 missions, 300 of which being search and rescue missions with the USCG. Burbank was selected to the astronaut program in 1996.

The purpose of STS-115 is to resume construction of the ISS after a four-year hiatus in the shadow of the Columbia disaster. Atlantis will deliver a 17.5-ton integrated solar power array truss that provide the necessary power for future shuttle missions to deliver large science modules and to increase the station's occupancy to four full-time astronauts. The solar array will employ a new type of joint that will allow the solar panels themselves to turn to face the sun. No joint like this has ever flown in space before.

Because of the Columbia disaster, Burbank and the rest of the crew of STS-115 set a record of four and a half years of training for their mission. But the crew has not had any lax time during that training. Since Columbia, the crew, and especially Burbank have had to be trained on the use of the new high-resolution camera and other sensors that the crew must use to inspect the shuttle after launch to monitor and prevent any similar damaged that doomed Columbia.

Burbank will make the first spacewalk of the mission, as well as the first of his career, to prepare the ISS for the installation of the new truss. Burbank's other responsibilities during the 11-day mission will include operation of the shuttle's robotic arm, making sure the shuttle maintains its trajectory during the ascent and descent phases of the mission, and managing the network of laptop computers that are essential to the mission.

The $327 million array will be one of the heaviest payloads ever to be launched on the space shuttle. In fact, Atlantis was specifically selected for this mission due to its comparatively lower weight than the other shuttles.

Atlantis is scheduled to return home and land at Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 19.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools