David Brown by Regina


David:
I'm up! This is Payload Specialist David Brown. And it's hard to get in here with Sally (Ride) in here. She's pretty big now. She used to be a pretty small thing, but her energy is really big. Anyway, so I'm just going to introduce myself very quickly, because I was kind of semi-introduced with Laurel (Clark) when she said that somebody wanted to ride with their body all the way down to destruction, and that was me. Stupid me.

I'm, you know, I like to document things. I love to document things. In fact, you (participant and event videographer) and I, we get along really good, really good. I had my face behind the camera as often as I could. Everybody said, "Why are you carrying that thing around?"

"I got to document this.  I got to document that." Because everything excited me. Everything excited me. And this was the excitement of a lifetime. So, I was documenting everything through my little camera, and I had a blast doing it. And yes, I got ET (extra-terrestrial) stuff, too! I mean, I don't know whether they were "grays" as you call it, or whatever they were, but I got... I got their ships!

However, my drive (camera memory), although it was recovered, interesting enough, it is not released. So, sorry. I'm actually more than sorry. Because I really wanted that to go back to my wife (mis-spoke), my family. And umm... 

Anyway, I rode with my body. I was outside of it. So, I wasn't suffering. I just rode, I just... I had to document this. I had to deal with this and I'm laughing about it inside. But you know, it wasn’t such a good thing. It was not such a good thing at all. And maybe, if I could continue to replay this (scene) a little bit, it would be better. But I was all... I was dealt with all the anti-gravitational things that we were doing – 16 days of experiments, I'm documenting everything. Everything's getting documented.

And the... you know, the strange thing? I know there's a possibility that my drives (camera videos) did not make it through. That they never did pick it up. But I actually see it in somebody's pocket. So I know somebody picked it up. Just like Ilan's diary. That was picked up, and it didn't... it... it survived the crash. Can you believe it? Can you believe it? It survived the crash. Survived the burn, survived the micro-organisms. It survived everything. So you know, all this you can find on the internet.  It doesn't matter.

So, it's just...it's just... it's good to be back. I'm sorry, I don't have a camera – I'd love to document this. It'd be fun. I'm always shooting stuff.

And now I realiz that as soon as you get "over," not only are you dead from this body, but you get to see all the other bodies of you, still living! Yeah, there's all these parallel lives. Way, way cool! And I'm not talking about Willie. I'm talking about this is so cool. Because "that" person's still alive. And that me is still alive, and that me.

What... what is this one trying to learn in this lifetime? What do you think that one's trying to learn in that lifetime? And they're all happening simultaneously. So, when do I get to join this other lifetime? I have so many questions, it's ridiculous. And they're going to keep shoving me back a grade if I don't shut up in class. But I have a lot of questions. It's fun and I want to document everything so that I can send you a flash drive and say, "Here, play this." But I can't. They won't let me. So anyway, I'm just checking in, just saying "Hi."

I'm done. I'm out of here right now, but I'm gonna... I'm documenting everything. I'm, that's my word. I love behind the film... being behind the film, behind the camera, behind the eye, and it's a great experience. So I... I rode with my body, and I did see what Sally saw, so... and everybody else.

Thank you, guys!