David Cornell Leestma (born May 6, 1949) is a former American astronaut and retired Captain in the United States Navy.

He completed United States Naval Flight Officer training and received his NFO wings in October 1973.

Leestma made three overseas deployments to the Mediterranean/North Atlantic areas while flying aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy.

He was then assigned as the Chief, Mission Development Branch, responsible for assessing the operational integration requirements of payloads that will fly aboard the Space Shuttle.

From February 1990 to September 1991, when he started training for his third space mission, Leestma served as deputy director of Flight Crew Operations.

In September 1998, Leestma was reassigned as the deputy director, Engineering, in charge of the management of Johnson Space Center Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) Projects.

During the mission, the crew deployed the ERBS satellite using the Remote Manipulator System (RMS), operated the OSTA-3 payload (including the SIR-B radar, FILE, and MAPS experiments) and the Large Format Camera (LFC), conducted a satellite refueling demonstration using hydrazine fuel with the Orbital Refueling System (ORS), and conducted numerous in-cabin experiments as well as activating eight "Getaway Special" canisters.

Dave Leestma and Kathryn Sullivan successfully conducted a 3½ hour extravehicular activity (EVA) to demonstrate the feasibility of actual satellite refueling.

After 80 orbits of the Earth, this five-day mission concluded with a lakebed landing on Runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on August 13, 1989.

During the nine-day mission, the crew operated the twelve experiments that constituted the ATLAS-1 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science) cargo.

[7] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.