Staff Report
Published Nov. 17, 2009

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Randy Bresnik is one of the six astronauts who blasted off on the space shuttle Atlantis on Monday for a mission on the International Space Station. Bresnik graduated with a bachelor’s degree in math from The Citadel in 1989.

A member of Band Company, Bresnik was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps after graduation. As a Marine, Bresnik gained a range of experience in complex aircraft, first by attending flight school and being selected to fly jets, then by attending Naval Fighter Weapons School, also known as Topgun.

He also attended U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, flying F/A-18s and various test aircraft, and ultimately logged more than 4,500 hours in 79 different aircraft. In 2002, he earned his master’s in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

His flight knowledge and experience qualified him to enter NASA’s 2004 astronaut class. That training included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 supersonic jet flight training, and water and wilderness survival training.

Bresnik is one of 11 candidates and one of two test pilots chosen by NASA. He has trained to pilot and land the space shuttle and to manipulate the robotic arm. He also learned to spacewalk in the neutral buoyancy lab.

As a part of the mission to the International Space Station, Bresnik and his crew will deliver two express logistics carriers, take part in three spacewalks and return NASA astronaut Nicole Stott to Earth. Bresnik will take part in two of the three spacewalks.

Bresnik credits his Citadel experience for teaching him perseverance and leadership.

“To this date, it was the hardest mental and physical challenge that I’ve come up against,” he said. “I didn’t know I could do it. After The Citadel, I knew that I could do anything. The only limits you have are those that you place on yourself.”