NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn is bringing his 337 days of spaceflight expertise to a personal firm.
Marshburn flew to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) three separate instances, in 2009, 2012-2013 and 2021-2022. He rode to and from the ISS on a unique automobile every time, making orbital journeys aboard NASA’s house shuttle, a Russian Soyuz and a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
The previous flight surgeon introduced his retirement from NASA on Thursday (Dec. 1). Marshburn is shifting on to Sierra Area; he can be chief medical officer for its human spaceflight middle and astronaut coaching academy, as the corporate continues designing a NASA-funded house station.
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Sierra Area is working to place its Dream Chaser spacecraft for contracted NASA cargo missions to the ISS, together with navy cargo flights. The spacecraft additionally can be used for flights for personal astronauts within the coming years, Sierra Area has mentioned, together with to a personal house station known as Orbital Reef. (Orbital Reef is amongst just a few envisioned non-public complexes collectively supported by $415 million in NASA funding introduced in December 2021. NASA hopes a number of of those non-public stations ultimately substitute the ISS, which the company expects to make use of till at the least 2030.)
“I stay up for creating and creating the foundations, rules and coaching that can guarantee Sierra Area correctly equips the long run astronaut corps with the instruments to succeed,” Marshburn mentioned in an announcement.
Marshburn was with NASA for 28 years, serving for a decade as a flight surgeon and for 18 years as an astronaut. His spaceflight medical expertise contains supporting NASA personnel working at Russia’s coaching middle in Star Metropolis exterior Moscow, serving as co-chair of medical operations for house shuttle visits to the Russian house station Mir, and main medical operations for the ISS.
His departure to the non-public sector is changing into extra typical for NASA astronauts as of late, with latest examples additionally together with Peggy Whitson and Michael López-Alegría to Axiom Area. Houston-based Axiom operates non-public missions to the ISS and is working to construct its personal NASA-supported house station within the coming decade.
Associated: NASA seems to personal outposts to construct on Worldwide Area Station’s legacy
A few of Marshburn’s different profession highlights embrace performing an emergency restore to a leaking ISS ammonia pump throughout a spacewalk in 2013, days earlier than touchdown with a Soyuz crew. The Expedition 34/35 crew that included Canadian Chris Hadfield and Marshburn was additionally one of the vital scientifically productive of that period, in accordance with Canadian Area Company officers chatting with Area.com on the time.
Marshburn’s different missions included the STS-127 shuttle flight in 2009, whose main process was finishing building of the Japanese Kibo module on the ISS, and SpaceX’s Crew-3 from November 2021 to Could 2022. On Crew-3, Marshburn’s remaining mission, he piloted the Crew Dragon and labored with a crew that accomplished 250 experiments aboard the ISS, in accordance with NASA statistics (opens in new tab).
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a ebook about house medication. Comply with her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Fb (opens in new tab).
