Cadets Holding Virtual Meeting With ISS Commander Today

The Aviation Club of the will have an unusual long-distance conversation today when they have a brief meeting with an academy graduate aboard the International Space Station.

The club will hold a live meeting via video conference at 2:40 p.m. with Daniel C. Burbank, commander of the current crew aboard the station. The meeting may be rescheduled if pressing matters arise on the space station. Burbank will speak and answer questions for 20 minutes.

Burbank, who was born in Manchester, Conn., graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1985 with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. He also earned a master of science degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1990. He is a retired Coast Guard captain who served as a professor of engineering at the academy between 2007 and 2009.

Before his current mission, Burbank worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in both the Astronaut Office Operations Planning Branch and International Space Station Branch and as a spacecraft communicator for space shuttle and ISS missions. He also served as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle missions in 2000 and 2006.

Burbank is part of "Expedition 30," which includes three astronauts from Russia, two from the United States, and one from the Netherlands. The mission began in November and will end in March.