David McDowell Brown (April 16, 1956 – February 1, 2003) was a United States Navy captain and a NASA astronaut. He died on his first spaceflight, when the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) [1] disintegrated during orbital reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.
1957
Born in Amarillo, Potter, Texas, USA.
1978
Bachelor of Science in Biology, College of William and Mary.
1982
Doctorate in Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School. Joined the US Navy. During his Navy career, he was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal.
Awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. [4]
Congressional Space Medal of Honor
Obituary
United States Astronaut. Born in Arlington, Virginia, he attended Eastern Virginia Medical School and joined the US Navy immediately after his internship in 1982. He served as director of medical services at Navy Branch Hospital in Adak, Alaska, became a naval aviator in Beeville, Texas in 1990 and was a US Navy Captain test pilot in 1995. In 1996, he was selected as a Mission Specialist in the NASA Space Shuttle program and was a Astronaut on the shuttle Columbia science and research mission flight on January 16, 2003. On February 1, 2003, NASA lost all contact with the shuttle Columbia just minutes before scheduled landing time. A short time later it was confirmed that the Columbia had exploded over eastern Texas and that there were no survivors.
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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with David McDowell by comparing test results with other carriers of his ancestors' Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA.
However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line.
It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with David McDowell: