NASA Astronaut to Celebrate Colleague’s Launch in Massachusetts

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, who recently returned from a five-month mission to the International Space Station, will bid farewell to his friend and colleague NASA astronaut Sunita Williams as she departs for her next mission to the space station.

The celebration and remote viewing of the Expedition 32 launch will be held at the Admiral’s Hall of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy at 101 Academy Drive, Buzzards Bay, Mass. Williams is scheduled to launch at 10:40 p.m. EDT July 14 (8:40 a.m. July 15 Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Before the launch, at 9 p.m., Burbank will share information from his most recent spaceflight mission, Expedition 30. At 10:30 p.m., he will provide real-time commentary of the Expedition 32 launch activities. The events are free and open to the public. Media representatives are welcome to attend.

This will be Williams, second long-duration mission on the space station. In 2006, the Needham, Mass., native spent 195 days in space, breaking the world record for the most time spent in space by a woman.

Burbank is a native of Yarmouthport, Mass., and a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The three-time spaceflight veteran recently completed 165 days in space as a member of the Expedition 29 and 30 crews. He and his crewmates, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, returned to Earth on April 27.

For more information about this appearance, contact Brenda Cabaniss, Astronaut Appearances Office, at 281-244-8860 or Bryan McKay, One Giant Leap, at 978-448-5988.

For more about missions to the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station/