Dr. Owen Brown
DARPA F6 Program Manager

Owen Brown received a B.S. in Engineering Science from Loyola College in Baltimore in 1984. After graduating he was commissioned as an officer in the US Navy and attended nuclear power and submarine training. He then served onboard the fast attack submarines USS Flying Fish and USS Sturgeon and conducted several deployments while acting in a variety of engineering and operations positions, including Chief Engineer. In 1990 he left active duty and came to Palo Alto. He received a Masters degree in Aero/Astro in 1992, and continued studies for another year, acting as a course assistant in both Rocket and Aircraft Propulsion courses. After 3 years of full time employment as a spacecraft engineer at Space Systems/Loral, he returned to Stanford as a Ph.D. student, and conducted research at the NASA Ames Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, investigating applications of pressure sensitive paints in low speed wind tunnel applications. After receiving his doctorate in 2000, he returned to work at Loral. In 2001 he left the west coast to return home to Virginia. For 2 years he was employed with Booz Allen Hamilton, providing technical consulting services to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). While in this job he acted as the lead technical consultant for several space projects, including the RASCAL space launch program. In 2003 he was invited to DARPA to serve as a Program Manager. He now directs the System F6 fractionated spacecraft program, a concept he personally conceived and developed. He will complete his six year tour at DARPA in October 2009. Owen retired from the US Navy Reserve as a Commander in 2006 He lives in Leesburg, VA with his wife and 2 daughters, ages 5 and 8.