Burbank was selected as an astronaut in 1996. He flew on two space shuttle missions: as a mission specialist on Atlantis in September 2000 to prepare the International Space Station (ISS) for the arrival of the first resident crew; and again on Atlantis in September 2006, when he performed a space walk to complete truss installation on the ISS among other tasks. On 14 November 2011, Burbank launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the Soyuz TMA-22 and docked to the ISS two days later. Burbank spent 163 days aboard the station and helped the crew complete dozens of repairs and enhancements to the station’s systems.