David McDowell Brown (April 16, 1956 – February 1, 2003) was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

captain and a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

astronaut. He died on his first

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in o ...

, when the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' (

STS-107 STS-107 was the 113th flight of the Space Shuttle program, and the 28th and final flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003, and during its 15 days, 22 hours, 20 minutes ...

) disintegrated during orbital reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Brown became an astronaut in 1996 but had not served on a space mission before the '' Columbia'' disaster. Brown was posthumously awarded the

Congressional Space Medal of Honor The Congressional Space Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress in 1969 to recognize "any astronaut who in the performance of his or her duties has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and con ...

Education

* Attended McKinley Elementary,

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

* Attended Swanson Middle,

* 1974: Graduated from Yorktown High School,

* 1978: Received bachelor of science degree in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

from the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...

* 1982: Received a doctorate in medicine from Eastern Virginia Medical School

Organizations

* Active in the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

where he achieved its second-highest rank,

Life Scout The advancement program for Scouts participating in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America is symbolized by the earning of seven ranks. The advancement program is often considered to be divided into two phases. The first phase from jo ...

. * Past President, International Association of Military Flight Surgeon Pilots * Associate Fellow,

Aerospace Medical Association The Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) is the largest professional organization in the fields of aviation, space, and environmental medicine. The AsMA membership includes aerospace and hyperbaric medical specialists, scientists, flight nurses, ...

* Society of U.S. Naval Flight Surgeons.

Awards and honors

Brown, the 1986 recipient of the Navy Operational Flight Surgeon of the Year award, received numerous decorations including:

Qualification insignia

* Naval Aviator * Naval Astronaut * Naval Flight Surgeon

Personal decorations

Defense Distinguished Service Medal The Defense Distinguished Service Medal is a military decoration of the United States Department of Defense, which is presented to United States Armed Forces service members for exceptionally distinguished performance of duty contributing to the ...

^† *

Meritorious Service Medal A Meritorious Service Medal is an award presented to denote acts of meritorious service, and sometimes gallantry, that are worthy of recognition. Notable medals with similar names include: * Meritorious Civilian Service Award *Meritorious Service Me ...

Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal The Achievement Medal is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The Achievement Medal was first proposed as a means to recognize outstanding achievement or meritorious service of military personnel who were not eligible to recei ...

National Defense Service Medal The National Defense Service Medal (NDSM) is a service award of the United States Armed Forces established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. It is awarded to every member of the US Armed Forces who has served during any one of four ...

^† * NASA Distinguished Service Medal ^† *

NASA Space Flight Medal The NASA Space Flight Medal is a decoration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to its statutes, it is awarded "for significant achievement or service during individual participation as a civilian or military astrona ...

^† The ^† symbol indicates a posthumous award.

Military career

Brown joined the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

after his internship at the

Medical University of South Carolina The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is a public medical school in South Carolina. It opened in 1824 in Charleston as a small private college aimed at training physicians and has since established hospitals and medical facilities ac ...

. Upon completion of flight surgeon training in 1984, he reported to the Navy Branch Hospital in

Adak, Alaska Adak (, ale, Adaax, russian: Адак), formerly Adak Station, is a city located on Adak Island, in the Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 171, down from 326 in 2010. It is the westernmost ...

, as Director of Medical Services. He was then assigned to

Carrier Air Wing Fifteen Carrier Air Wing Fifteen (CVW-15) is a former United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing that was decommissioned on March 31, 1995. It was previously known as Carrier Air Group Fifteen (CVG-15) before 1963 before being renamed in December of th ...

which deployed aboard the aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific. In 1988, he became the only flight surgeon in a ten-year period to be chosen for pilot training. He was ultimately designated a Naval Aviator in 1990 at

NAS Chase Field Naval Air Station Chase Field is a former naval air station located in Beeville, Texas. It was named for Lieutenant Commander Nathan Brown Chase, Naval Aviator #37, who died in 1925 while developing carrier landing techniques for the U.S. Navy. S ...

Beeville, Texas Beeville is a city in Bee County, Texas, United States, with a population of 12,863 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bee County and home to the main campus of Coastal Bend College. The area around the city contains three prisons ope ...

, ranking number one in his class. Brown was then sent for training and carrier qualification in the

A-6E Intruder The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was designed in response to a 1957 r ...

. In 1991, he reported to the Naval Strike Warfare Center at

NAS Fallon Naval Air Station Fallon or NAS Fallon is the United States Navy's premier air-to-air and air-to-ground training facility. It is located southeast of the city of Fallon, east of Reno in western Nevada. Since 1996, it has been home to the U.S. Na ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, where he served as a Strike Leader Attack Training Syllabus Instructor and a Contingency Cell Planning Officer. Additionally, he was qualified in the F/A-18 Hornet and deployed from Japan in 1992 aboard flying the A-6E with VA-115. In 1995, he reported to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at

NAS Patuxent River Naval Air Station Patuxent River , also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States naval air station located in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River. It is home to Headquarters, Naval Air Sys ...

, Maryland as their flight surgeon where he also flew the

T-38 Talon The Northrop T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer. It was the world's first, and the most produced, supersonic trainer. The T-38 remains in service in several air forces. The United States Air Force (USAF) operates the most ...

. Brown logged over 2,700 flight hours with 1,700 in high-performance military aircraft. He was qualified as the first pilot in NASA T-38 aircraft. He held a

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) issued Technician Class

amateur radio license Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency comm ...

with the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...

KC5ZTC.

NASA career

Selected by NASA in April 1996, Brown reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. He completed two years of training and evaluation and was qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. He was initially assigned to support payload development for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

, followed by the astronaut support team responsible for orbiter cockpit setup, crew strap-in, and landing recovery. On April 21, 2001, Brown appeared on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

as an expert on g-force loading on the human body that led to the cancellation of the Firestone Firehawk 600 CART race. Brown flew aboard Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' on

, logging 15 days, 22 hours, and 20 minutes in space from January 16 to February 1, 2003. The flight was a dedicated science and research mission. Working 24 hours a day, in two alternating shifts, the crew successfully conducted approximately 80 experiments. The mission ended abruptly on February 1, 2003, when ''Columbias crew perished during entry, 16 minutes before the scheduled landing.

Personal life

As the lone unmarried member of the STS-107 crew, Brown had previously been romantically involved with NASA engineer Ann Micklos. The two ended their relationship shortly before the mission but remained close friends until his death. The crew of STS-107 had also formed a very close friendship in their training, that Brown had been preparing a videotape to commemorate once they returned from their mission. Brown is buried in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

Tributes

* Asteroid

51825 Davidbrown 51825 Davidbrown (provisional designation ) is an Eoan asteroid in the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 19 July 2001, by astronomers of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program at Pal ...

was named in honor of Brown. * Lunar crater D. Brown is named after Brown. * Brown Hall, in the Columbia Village apartments, at the

Florida Institute of Technology The Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech or FIT) is a private research university in Melbourne, Florida. The university comprises four academic colleges: Engineering & Science, Aeronautics, Psychology & Liberal Arts, and Business. App ...

is named after him. * He is the first person ever to be posthumously awarded the William & Mary Alumni Association's, Alumni Medal. * The Laurel B. Clark and David M. Brown Aerospace Medicine Academic Center, located at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, is named after him. * The Captain David Brown Aerospace and Medical Research Endowment was established in his memory to help deserving students attending Eastern Virginia Medical School. * The planetarium of

Arlington Public Schools Arlington Public Schools is a public school division in Arlington County, Virginia. In 2019, student enrollment was 28,020 students, with students coming from more than 146 countries. In 2015, there were 2,166 teachers. There are 24 elementary ...

was renamed the David M. Brown Planetarium. * The Dave Brown Memorial Park in

Friendswood, Texas Friendswood is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the metropolitan area. The city lies in Galveston and Harris Counties. As of the 2010 census, the population of Friendswood was 35,805. In 2007, CNN/''Money'' magazine listed Fr ...

, is named after him. * The annual Astronaut Dave Brown Memorial gymnastics meet is held at the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William I ...

in his honor, where Dave Brown was a gymnast. * Yorktown High School Crew Team Men's Varsity 8 boat name Captain David M. Brown - c. 2003 * Circle Oil Hill Elementary of Circle USD 375 in Kansas grants a scholarship each year - David Brown Hopes & Dreams Scholarship. This scholarship was first awarded in 2005.

References

External links

* *
David Brown STS-107 Crew MemorialCaptain David Brown Aerospace and Medical Research Endowment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, David Macdowell 1956 births 2003 deaths Space Shuttle Columbia disaster Physician astronauts United States Navy astronauts People from Arlington County, Virginia Yorktown High School (Virginia) alumni College of William & Mary alumni Eastern Virginia Medical School alumni American test pilots Aviators from Virginia Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Accidental deaths in Texas Recipients of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal Recipients of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal Amateur radio people Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Space Shuttle program astronauts United States Naval Aviators United States Navy captains United States Navy Medical Corps officers United States Naval Test Pilot School alumni