EILEEN M. COLLINS

Eileen M. Collins is a former astronaut and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first woman to pilot, and later command, a US space shuttle.

She graduated from Corning Community College with an AS degree in mathematics/science and Syracuse University with a BA degree in mathematics /economics, where she was an Air Force ROTC Distinguished Graduate. She later earned an MS degree in operations research from Stanford University, and an MA degree in space systems management from Webster University.

Collins graduated from Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, where she was a T-38 instructor pilot 1979-1982.  She was a C-141 aircraft commander and instructor pilot at Travis Air Force Base, California 1983-1985. Collins was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, where she was an assistant professor in mathematics and a T-41 instructor pilot 1986-1989.

Collins graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in 1990. She was selected by NASA and became an astronaut in July 1991. After tours at Kennedy Space Center (shuttle launch and landing) and Johnson Space Center (shuttle engineer and capsule communicator), she flew the space shuttle as pilot in 1995 aboard Discovery. This mission was the first space shuttle to rendezvous with the Russian Space Station MIR.  She was also the pilot for Atlantis in 1997, where her crew docked with MIR.  Collins became the first woman commander of a U.S. spacecraft with shuttle mission Columbia in 1999, the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Her final space flight was as commander of Discovery in 2005, the “Return to Flight Mission” after the tragic loss of Columbia. She has logged more than 6,751 hours in 30 different types of aircraft and more than 872 hours in space as a veteran of four space flights.

Collins currently serves on several boards and advisory panels, is a professional speaker, author and an aerospace consultant. Her book: “Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars” was recently made into a documentary film: “Spacewoman”. She is married with two children.