David M. Brown
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) disintegrated during orbital reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Brown became an astronaut in 1996, but had not served on a space mission prior to the "Columbia" disaster. Brown was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Brown, the 1986 recipient of the Navy Operational Flight Surgeon of the Year award, received numerous decorations including:
The symbol indicates a posthumous award.
Rendezvous pitch maneuver
The rendezvous pitch maneuver was developed by NASA engineers Steve Walker, Mark Schrock and Jessica LoPresti after the Space Shuttle "Columbia" disaster. "Columbia" had sustained damage to its heat shield due to insulating foam breaking off the external tank and hitting the shield at liftoff. The damage was too great for the heat shield to protect the shuttle from the heat and structural strain of atmospheric reentry, causing it to break apart. For this reason, the integrity of the heat shield had been a critical concern of NASA ever since. The maneuver was first performed by Mission Commander Eileen Collins on STS-114, which was one of Space Shuttle "Discovery"s two "Return To Flight" missions after the "Columbia" STS-107 disaster.