Shuttle astronaut Brown rode bike across Nevada

FALLON -- David Brown loved adventure, whether it was riding his bicycle across the entire state of Nevada or pursuing his lifelong dream -- space flight.

The former "Top Gun" pilot at the Fallon Naval Air Station was one of the astronauts killed in the shuttle explosion.

Brown, 47, a Navy captain, spent four years as a pilot at the air station in Nevada during the mid-1990s before attending test pilot school in Maryland and becoming an astronaut in 1996.

"He was extremely outgoing and extremely personable," said Zip Upham, spokesman for the air station in Fallon.

"Most people who knew him at all considered him a good friend because that was his personality," he told KOH Radio in Reno on Monday.

"I'm pleased to see he actually got to achieve his dream. He was focused on going into space from the time he originally took up flying in the Navy," Upham said.

Chuck and Yumi Neefe became friends with Brown as neighbors in rural Churchill County when he was flying at Fallon.

"He was one of the greatest and friendliest guys I ever met," said Chuck Neefe, 57, a retired Navy lieutenant.

"He rode his bike 12 miles each way to NAS Fallon. He also was a runner," he told the Lahontan Valley News & Fallon Eagle Standard.

Brown lived alone with his Labrador when he was in Churchill County.

"He always had lots of friends from the base over to his house.," Neefe said.

Brown sent the Neefe's an invitation to be his guests at the takeoff at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but Chuck said he had to decline because of scheduled surgery.

Upham said Brown once bicycled all the way across Nevada on Highway 50.

"I took him to Lake Tahoe and dropped him off at Stateline and he bicycled all the way to Ely, stopping at places like Austin and Eureka and spending a night at a hotel meeting people along the way," Upham said.

Five days later "I drove to the Utah border in his own car and brought him home," he said.

"He was extremely driven but he always had a low-key, ironic look at the world and just enjoyed doing things. He was great to be around.

"We all will look back very fondly on having known him and the way he lived and his outlook on life."