Eileen collins
Eileen collins
The first female pilot of a Space Shuttle as well as the first female commander of a U.S. Spacecraft.
ProfessionAstronaut
Date of Birth19 November 1956
CityElmira, NY
family gone good sort spend summer
I had been gone from my family and I sort of want to make it up to them this summer and spend a good summer with my family.
astronomy eyes good open ready
Houston, we have a good deploy. Chandra is ready to open the eyes of X-ray astronomy to the world.
happy wheels
Houston, Discovery, wheels are down. We're all happy to be back again.
focused good ground hands mission people staying
We are staying focused on the mission and we know we are in good hands with the people on the ground
million parts perfectly shuttle space
There are 2 million other parts on the space shuttle that are working perfectly right now
ready whatever
We are ready for whatever we need to do.
astronaut program wanted
I wanted to apply to the astronaut program after the Challenger accident
pressure nerves emotion
I have no nerves, no emotion, no pressure.
moon design age
The vast majority of the shuttle program was a success. We learned so much about how a reusable spacecraft interacts with its environment, how it ages-and what to design next time.
opportunity thinking firsts
I'm honored to be the first woman to have the opportunity to command the shuttle. I don't really think about that on a day-to-day basis because I really don't need to.
mom daughter thinking
My daughter just thinks that all moms fly the Space Shuttle
air eggs atmosphere
The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so thin. We know that we don't have much air - we need to protect what we have.
thinking being-a-woman prove
I don’t think of myself as being a woman and having anything to prove,
military war airplane
Because of [Amelia Earhart], we had more women available to fly in the 1940's to help us get through World War II. And because of these women, women of my generation are able to look back and say, 'Hey, they did it. They even flew military airplanes, we can do it, too.'