Vance Devoe Brand
Astronaut

Date of Birth: May 9, 1931
Place of Birth: Longmont, Colorado
Joined NASA: April, 1966
Space Flights: 4
Time in Space: 31 days 2 hours 2 minutes










MISSION ASSIGNMENTS
Apollo 8
Assignment: Support Crew & Capcom

Apollo 13
Assignment: Support Crew & Capcom

Apollo 15
Assignment: Back-up Command Module Pilot & Capcom

Skylab 2
Assignment: Back-up Commander

Skylab 3
Assignment: Back-up Commander

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Assignment: Command Module Pilot
Flight Duration: 9 days, 1 hour, 28 minutes

STS 5
Assignment: Commander
Flight Duration: 5 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes

STS 41B
Assignment: Commander
Flight Duration: 7 days, 23 hours, 15 minutes

STS 35
Assignment: Commander
Flight Duration: 8 days, 23 hours, 5 minutes

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Received a bachelor of science degree in Business from the University of Colorado in 1953, a B.Sc. Aeronautical Engineering, University of Colorado, 1960, and a master's degree in Business Administration from the UCLA in 1964.

  • From 1953-1957, US Marine Corps Naval Aviator, including 15 month tour as a fighter pilot in Japan. Upon retirement continued in USMC Resreve and the Air National Guard fighter squadrons until 1964.

  • From 1960 to 1966 worked as a Flight Test Engineer for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

  • Graduated from the US Naval Test Pilot School in 1963. Assigned to Palmdale California to work as a test pilot on the Canadian & German F-104 fighter programs.

  • July 1975, Command Module Pilot for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first international joint mission in space.

  • November 1982, CDR of STS 5, the first fully operational mission in the Space Transportation System program. Assisted in the deployment of two communications satellites from Columbia's payload bay.

  • February 1984, CDR of STS 41B. Deployed two communications satellites. STS 41B featured the first use of the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) by Mission Specialists Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart.

  • December 1990, CDR of STS 35, the ASTRO-1 Observatory mission.

  • Departed the Astronaut Office in 1992 to become Chief of Plans at the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) Joint Program Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio.

  • In 1994 named Assistant Chief of Flight Operations at the Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

  • From June 2001, Deputy Director for Aerospace Projects at Dryden.