This Day in Coast Guard History – Sept. 8

1952-When SS Foundation Star sent a distress signal that she was in rough seas and in danger of breaking in half, four Coast Guard vessels and three commercial vessels proceed to her assistance and rescued the crew before the ship broke apart and sank.

2000-LCDR Daniel C. Burbank became the second Coast Guard astronaut to fly on a Shuttle mission (he had been selected by NASA for astronaut training in 1996).  He flew as a mission specialist on NASA flight STS-106 aboard the space shuttle Atlantis (September 8-20, 2000).  During the 12-day mission, the crew successfully prepared the International Space Station for the arrival of the first permanent crew.  The five astronauts and two cosmonauts delivered more than 6,600 pounds of supplies and installed batteries, power converters, oxygen generation equipment and a treadmill on the Space Station.  Two crewmembers performed a space walk in order to connect power, data and communications cables to the newly arrived Zvesda Service Module and the Space Station.  STS-106 orbited the Earth 185 times, and covered 4.9 million miles in 11 days, 19 hours, and 10 minutes.

(Source: USCG Historian’s Office)