Lecturer: Thomas H. Marshburn, MD,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Lyndon B. Johnson Space, Center, Houston, TX
Thomas H. Marshburn, MD, is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Davidson College in 1982, a Masters degree in engineering physics from the University of Virginia in 1984, a Doctor of Medicine degree from Wake Forest University in 1989, and a Masters degree in medical science from the University ofTexas Medical Branch (UTMB) in 1997. In 1992, he was certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. He received the NASA Superior Achievement Award in 1998, the Space and Life Sciences Division Special Space Flight Achievement Award in 2003 and 2004, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Superior Achievement Award in 2004.
Dr. Marshburn worked as an emergency physician in Seattle, Washington, before being accepted into the first class of the NASA/UTMB Space Medicine Fellowship in Galveston, Texas. After completing the fellowship in 1995, he worked as an emergency physician in area hospitals in Houston, Texas, and at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. During this time he also worked as an attending physician for the emergency medicine residency at the University of Texas in Houston.
Dr. Marshburn came to Houston's Johnson Space Center in November 1994 as a flight surgeon, assigned to Space Shuttle Medical Operations and to the joint US/Russian Space Program. From February 1996 to May 1997, he served as a flight surgeon for NASA personnel deployed to the Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia, followed by work in the Center for Flight Control in Korolev, Russia, in support of the NASA 4 Expedition to the Mir Space Station. From July 1997 to August 1998, he was cochair of Medical Operations for the Shuttle/Mir Space Program. From 1998 to 2000, he was deputy flight surgeon for Neuronal (STS-98) and lead flight surgeon for the STS-101mission to the International Space Station (ISS). After spending 10 months as a NASA representative to the Harvard/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Smart Medical Systems Team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, he worked as the lead flight surgeon for Expedition 7 to the ISS in 2003. Until he was selected as an astronaut candidate, Dr. Marshburn served as medical operations lead for the space station. His activities included developing the biomedical training program for flight surgeons and astronaut crew medical officers and managing the station's health maintenance system.
Selected by NASA in May 2004, Dr. Marshburn completed astronaut candidate training in February 2006. He completed his first spaceflight in July 2009, logging more than 376 hours in space, and 18 hours and 59 minutes of extravehicular activity (EVA) in 3 space walks. That mission featured a record 13 astronauts working aboard the ISS representing ailS international partners: NASA, the Russian Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, and the Japanese Space Agents. The mission was accomplished in 248 orbits of the Earth, traveling 6,547,853 million miles in 15 days, 16 hours, 44 minutes, and 58 seconds. Dr. Marshburn launched to the ISS as a flight engineer in December 2012. While onboard the station, he logged more than 146 days in space and 5 hours and 30 minutes of EVA time in an emergency space walk to replace a leaking ammonia pump. The mission was accomplished in 2,336 orbits of the Earth and traveled almost 62 million miles.