Eileen Marie Collins
Eileen Marie Collins is a retired United States Air Force colonel, test pilot, NASA astronaut, and one of the defining shuttle of the 1990s and 2000s. She was the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle and the first woman to command one.
- Born
- November 19, 1956
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Elmira, New York,United States
Flights
4
Spacewalks
0
EVA time
N/A
In space
36 days, 7 hours, 11 minutes
Bio
Collins came from an Air Force flying and instructional background, with degrees from Corning Community College, Syracuse University, Stanford University, and Webster University. That combination of pilot training, mathematics, operations research, and space-systems management shaped her command style.
Her four shuttle missions trace major moments in post-Cold War and post-accident shuttle history: the first shuttle with Mir on STS-63, Shuttle-Mir crew exchange on STS-84, Chandra deployment on STS-93, and the Return to Flight mission STS-114 after Columbia.
Collins retired from NASA in 2006 after commanding STS-114.