Living In Space

            Daniel Bursch became a NASA astronaut in 1991 and is a veteran of four space flights.  After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as an A-6 Intruder pilot and then attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.

            At NASA 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. He 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 the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition-Four (2001-2002). He and fellow astronaut Carl Walz have one of the longest single flights for US astronauts: 196 days in space.

            Daniel was born July 25, 1957, in Bristol, Pennsylvania, but considers Vestal, New York, to be his hometown. He graduated from Vestal Senior High School, Vestal, New York, in 1975; received a B.S. degree in physics from the United States Naval Academy in 1979, and a M.S. degree in engineering science from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1991.