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.
Space Shuttle program
The shuttle program operated accident-free for seventeen years after the "Challenger" disaster, until "Columbia" broke up on re-entry, killing all seven crew members, on February 1, 2003. The accident began when a piece of foam shed from the external tank struck the leading edge of the orbiter's left wing, puncturing one of the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panels that covered the wing edge and protected it during re-entry. As "Columbia" re-entered the atmosphere, hot gas penetrated the wing and destroyed it from the inside out, causing the orbiter to lose control and disintegrate.