Patches, Mission, Space Shuttle, STS-31

This STS-31 patch belonged to NASA astronaut David Brown, a mission specialist who flew in space for the first time as a member of the crew of STS-107, the Space Shuttle Columbia mission that disintegrated upon reentry on February 1, 2003. Aboard STS-107, Brown logged 15 days, 22 hours, and 20 minutes in space. Although this patch was never flown in space, it was a personal memento of Brown's.

STS-31, the flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990, launched the Hubble Space Telescope. (Mission numbers reflect the initial schedule, not launch order.) The presence in Dave Brown's possessions of ten sequential mission patches, beginning with STS-26 and including this STS-31 patch, may indicate that Brown started following the NASA space program more closely in 1988, after the return to flight following the Challenger disaster in 1986. A flight surgeon and a naval aviator, Brown was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in April 1996.

Doug Brown, Dave Brown's brother, gave the patch to the Museum in 2006.