David Brown

The seven astronauts killed in the space shuttle Columbia disaster on Feb 1, 2003, were high achievers at the peak of their careers. An editorial in the New York Times (Feb 3) opined: “astronauts may not get a tremendous amount of attention under ordinary circumstances, but they are the last unspoiled American heroes. Their motives, as far as we can tell, are still pure. They have come to embody whatever remains of the American ideal.” Two of those heroes were doctors, David Brown and Laurel Clark. Although they joined NASA in 1996, this was their first flight to carry out 90 life-science experiments.