Daniel Wheeler Bursch (born July 25, 1957) is a former NASA astronaut, and Captain of the United States Navy. He had four spaceflights, the first three of which were Space Shuttle missions lasting 10 to 11 days each. His fourth and final spaceflight was a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station as a crew member of Expedition 4, which lasted from December 2001 to June 2002. This 196-day mission set a new record for the longest duration spaceflight for an American astronaut, a record simultaneously set with his crew mate Carl Walz. Their record has since been broken, and as of 2016 it is held by Scott Kelly, who flew a 340-day mission during Expeditions 43, 44 and 45.
Education
Bursch graduated from Vestal Senior High School, Vestal, New York, in 1975; received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the United States Naval Academy in 1979, and a Master of Science degree in Engineering Science from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1991.
Navy career
Bursch graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1979, and was designated a Naval Flight Officer in April 1980 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. After initial training as an A-6E Intruder bombardier/navigator (B/N), he reported to VA-34 in January 1981, and deployed to the Mediterranean aboard the aircraft carrier , and to the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans aboard . He attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in January 1984. Upon graduation in December he worked as a project test flight officer flying the A-6 Intruder until August 1984, when he returned to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as a flight instructor. In April 1987, Bursch was assigned to the commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group 1, as strike operations officer, making deployments to the Indian Ocean aboard the cruiser and the carrier . Redesignated an Aeronautical Engineering Duty officer (AEDO), he attended the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from July 1989 until his selection to the astronaut program.
He has flown over 3,430 flight hours in more than 35 different aircraft.
Astronaut career
Selected by NASA in January 1990, Bursch became an astronaut in July 1991. His technical assignments to date include: Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch, working on controls and displays for the Space Shuttle and Space Station; Chief of Astronaut Appearances; spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) in mission control. A veteran of four space flights, Bursch has logged over 227 days in space. He was a mission specialist on STS-51 (1993), STS-68 (1994) and STS-77 (1996), and served as flight engineer on International Space Station Expedition 4 (2001–2002). Dan Bursch and fellow astronaut Carl Walz completed one of the longest U.S. space flights of 196 days in space. In January 2003, Bursch reported to the Naval Postgraduate School for a two-year assignment as an instructor in the Space Systems Academic Group.
He left NASA in May 2005 and later retired from active duty in July 2005 after 26 years of service in the U.S. Navy. Bursch joined The Aerospace Corporation in July 2005 and is currently serving as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Chair at the Naval Postgraduate School.
STS-51
STS-51 launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 12, 1993. During the ten-day mission the crew of five aboard the deployed the U.S. Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), and the Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) with NASA and German scientific experiments aboard. Following a spacewalk by two crew members to evaluate Hubble Space Telescope repair tools, the crew initiated rendezvous burns and Bursch recovered the SPAS using the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The mission concluded on September 22, 1993, with the first night landing at the Kennedy Space Center. Mission duration was 236 hours and 11 minutes.