RMA cadets hear from astronaut

GAINESVILLE - Riverside Military Academy (RMA) welcomed Marine Lt. Col. Randy Bresnik, a NASA astronaut, to campus Wednesday.

Col. Bresnik was the featured speaker for the school's character development program and addressed the corps of cadets and others.

Bresnik earned his B.A. degree in Mathematics from The Citadel and his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1989. He received an M.S. degree in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2002.

He is a veteran of the war in Iraq.

NASA selected Col. Bresnik for Astronaut Candidate Training in 2004. He completed his first shuttle flight in November 2009. It was the 31st shuttle flight to the International Space Station. The crew delivered two Express Logistics Carriers (ELC racks), consisting of about 30,000 pounds of replacement parts for systems that maintain power and operations for the Space Station. During the mission, Bresnik perform two spacewalks that lasted a total of 11 hours and 50 minutes.