Astronaut Diaries

Dave Brown was many things…a medical doctor, a Navy pilot, a gymnast, a circus performer and, on February 1, 2003 he was a first-time astronaut aboard the space shuttle Columbia. Dave was also an aspiring filmmaker who shot hundreds of hours of the training process leading up to what would become Columbia’s final mission. Among the diverse crew chosen for the most extensive research mission in the space shuttle’s history—four of whom had never flown on the shuttle before –Dave Brown captures the weeks and months of training that begin well before the Columbia shuttle moved to the launch pad.

In scenes usually veiled from the public, ASTRONAUT DIARIES reveals the bonds that form among these seven disparate individuals who very soon would become cohesive members of a team of historic explorers. What makes his footage so unique…and so special… is that Dave Brown is not a passive, objective observer. He is a fellow explorer and he is there, with camera in hand, for every intimate and unguarded moment of the training process. Through the eye of Dave Brown and the Columbia crew… and through the eyes of all of the loved ones left behind…Astronaut Filmmaker offers an insight into the minds of those who willingly risk their lives for science and exploration. And how they lived by what they believed.