Brand's first spaceflight came in 1975 as Command Module Pilot on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Flying with Thomas Stafford and Deke Slayton, he helped operate the Apollo spacecraft during the first joint United States-Soviet crewed space mission. The docking and crew visits in orbit became a symbolic step toward later international cooperation in space.

Brand went on to become one of the Apollo-era astronauts who helped carry NASA into the Shuttle program. He commanded STS-5, the first operational shuttle mission, then commanded STS-41B and STS-35. Those flights included satellite deployments, untethered EVA — open definition operations, and astronomy work with the ASTRO-1 payload. His career stretched from Apollo diplomacy to routine shuttle operations, showing how NASA's astronaut corps adapted after the Moon landings ended.

Brand's background fit the broader pattern of the early astronaut corps: technical training, operational discipline, and a career built around difficult work before spaceflight. His formal education included University of Colorado Boulder (B.S. Business, 1953), and University of California, Los Angeles (M.S. Business Administration, 1964). His service background is recorded as United States Marine Corps and United States Navy Reserve, Naval aviator before NASA selection. His personal record also sits alongside a family life recorded as married, six children, a reminder that these careers unfolded within ordinary lives as well as national history.