NASA assigns astronaut Deniz Burnham to first space station mission

NASA has assigned astronaut Deniz Burnham to her first mission to the International Space Station, where she will serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 76.

Burnham is set to launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-30 spacecraft with cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Konstantin Borisov. The mission is targeted for March 2027 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the crew expected to spend about seven months aboard the station.

NASA said Burnham will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations during the expedition, aimed at supporting future human exploration missions to the Moon and Mars as well as research with benefits on Earth.

Burnham was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021 and graduated with the agency’s 23rd astronaut class in 2024. NASA said she was born at Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey, and moved frequently while growing up in a military family. At the time of her selection, she was living in Wasilla, Alaska.

Before becoming an astronaut, Burnham interned at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, according to NASA. The agency said she spent more than a decade managing onsite drilling operations on oil rigs across North America, served in the U.S. Navy Reserves as an engineering duty officer, and is a licensed private pilot with multiple ratings.

NASA noted the International Space Station has hosted continuous human presence for more than 25 years and continues to support research that it says is not possible on Earth, while also contributing to preparations for long-duration missions under the Artemis program.