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The space shuttle program may be on its way out after almost 30 years of launching men into space, but the vehicle vividly sprang to life Monday morning at the Falls School.

While the astronauts aboard Atlantis were taking their third spacewalk at the International Space Station 220 miles above Earth, astronaut Daniel "Dan" Burbank - who played a fundamental role in assembling the space station while aboard Atlantis on two previous flights - was captivating students at an assembly that featured images from the second of his two missions.

Burbank, 48, who is training to be the commander of a space station mission almost two years away, came to the school with the assistance of the nonprofit group One Giant Leap.

From the outset, the retired Coast Guard captain and helicopter pilot had the kids' rapt attention.

Two of his childhood heroes were rocket pioneer Robert Goddard and Edwin Hubble, the man credited with showing the universe was expanding, but there was no guarantee Burbank would find his way into space. "When I was your age, I didn't want to be an astronaut," he said. "I thought I wasn't smart enough."

That changed after the July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 moon landing. Flashing a picture of himself at age 8 on the wall, juxtaposed with the front page of the New York Times from July 21, 1969, proclaiming the moon landing, Burbank said he was jealous of a friend named Neil (the same as moon walker Neil Armstrong) and "from that point on I always wanted to be in space."

He used his own life to illustrate to the students his three keys to succeeding: working hard in school, being good and never giving up.

The latter was particularly relevant to Burbank's life, because he said he was not initially picked for either the Coast Guard or Astronaut Corps, and had to reapply to both.

He received his commission from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in May 1985 and was picked by NASA in April 1996.

Burbank said he had to train hard for a number of years, describing his weightlessness experiences on the KC-135 gravity trainer, along with exercises under water and traveling across the world to train in the nations who are partners with the United States on the space station.

Finally, he flew aboard Atlantis in September 2000. He was a mission specialist on that 12-day flight, during which the crew prepped the station for the arrival of its first crew, delivering more than 6,600 pounds of supplies and equipment.

Six years later, also on Atlantis, he told the students of delivering "a school bus-size solar panel" to the station.

But he didn't just discuss the mission. He took the students through each step, from their launch-morning breakfast to the launch itself, the separation of the solid rocket boosters and external tank, the arrival at the space station and the spacewalk that he and another astronaut took to connect the solar panel to the station.

The spacesuit he wore during the walk would have weighed 600 to 700 pounds on Earth, but didn't deter him from doing his job, which included removing 250 small bolts. The solar panel, he said, could provide electricity to a small town.

Space travel doesn't mean the end of routine duties, either, Burbank said.

For one thing, cleaning up is a life-saving chore because dust and dirt float around instead of settling, requiring a filtering system. And living quarters are cramped.

"It's not like your living room. It's very cozy, but it's also a great place do work," he said.

One of the perks of being an astronaut, he added, is enjoying the view from space, and he showed spectacular pictures taken from Atlantis of deserts, the Nile River, the pyramids, and even what shooting stars look like from space.

"This planet is unbelievably beautiful seen from outer space," he said.

Burbank, a Connecticut native who trains in Houston but considers Yarmouthport his home, was born July 27, 1961 - six days after Mercury astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 flight - and space travel is clearly in his blood.

Burbank left the students with an upbeat message of the future.

"When you grow up, people will be living on Mars," he said.

He won't likely be one of them, but he will continue to play a key role in helping humans understand space when he spends six months on the space station, starting in September, 2011, four months as a commander.

LARRY KESSLER can be reached at 508-236-0330 or at lkessler@thesunchronicle.com.