Corning Community College (AA) Syracuse University (BA) Stanford University (MS) Webster University (MS)
Awards
Distinguished Flying Cross
Legion of Merit
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Meritorious Service Medal (2)
Air Force Commendation Medal (2)
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
NASA Exceptional Service Medal
NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal
NASA Space Flight Medal (4)
Space career
NASA astronaut
Rank
Colonel, USAF
Time in space
36d 7h 11m
Selection
NASA Group 13 (1990)
Missions
STS-63 STS-84 STS-93 STS-114
Mission insignia
Retirement
1 May 2006
Military career
Years of service
1978–2005
Battles/wars
United States invasion of Grenada
Eileen Marie Collins (born 19 November 1956) is a retired NASA astronaut and United States Air Force (USAF) colonel. A former flight instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle and the first to command a Space Shuttle mission.
A graduate of Corning Community College, where she earned an associate degree in mathematics in 1976, and Syracuse University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and economics in 1978, Collins was commissioned as an officer in the USAF through Syracuse's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program. She was one of four women chosen for Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. After earning her pilot wings, she stayed on at Vance for three years as a T-38 Talon instructor pilot before transitioning to the C-141 Starlifter at Travis Air Force Base, California. During the American invasion of Grenada in October 1983, her aircraft flew troops of the 82nd Airborne Division from Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina to Grenada, and took thirty-six medical students back. From 1986 to 1989, she was an assistant professor in mathematics and a T-41 instructor pilot at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. She earned a Master of Science degree in operations research from Stanford University in 1986, and a Master of Arts degree in space systems management from Webster University in 1989. That year, she became the second woman pilot to attend the USAF Test Pilot School, graduating with class 89B.
In 1990, Collins was selected to be a pilot astronaut with NASA Astronaut Group 13. She flew the Space Shuttle as the pilot of the 1995 STS-63 mission, which involved a space rendezvous between Space ShuttleDiscovery and the Russian space station Mir. She was also the pilot for STS-84 in 1997. She became the first woman to command a US spacecraft with STS-93, which launched in July 1999 and deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. In 2005 she commanded STS-114, NASA's "return to flight" mission after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, to test safety improvements and resupply the International Space Station (ISS). During this mission she became the first astronaut to fly the Space Shuttle orbiter through a complete 360-degree pitch maneuver so astronauts aboard the ISS could take photographs of its belly to ensure there was no threat from debris-related damage during re-entry. She retired from the USAF in January 2005 with the rank of colonel, and from NASA in May 2006.
Eileen Marie Collins (born 19 November 1956) is a retired NASA astronaut and United States Air Force (USAF) colonel. A former flight instructor and test...
Findhorn Foundation community EileenCollins (born 1956), American astronaut Eileen de Coppet, Princess of Albania (1922–1985) Eileen Rockefeller Growald (born...
was the first U.S. space mission with a female commander, Lt. Col. EileenCollins. This mission deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Columbia's final...
Chandler, Army Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Clifford, Army Colonel EileenCollins, Air Force, NASA astronaut Colonel Kim Campbell (pilot), Air Force Senior...
(MA 1962), visual artist and writer Jim Toomey, syndicated cartoonist EileenCollins (M.S. 1986), NASA astronaut, first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
Archived from the original on August 4, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2009. Eileen McNamara (2018). Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World. Simon & Schuster...
Mattydale. The main terminal complex is at the east end of Colonel EileenCollins Boulevard. Half of the airport is located within the Town of DeWitt...
program. The song was inspired by NASA's space shuttle program and by EileenCollins, the commander of the STS-114. The song was used as Senator Hillary...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
Mir rendezvous SPACEHAB IMAX camera First female Space Shuttle pilot, EileenCollins 68 2 March 1995 06:38:13 UTC 01:38:13 EST STS-67 Endeavour 7 16d 15h...
"Rosa Julia Child". Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved April 11, 2022. Collins, Glenn (June 22, 2007). "Romancing the Rose in Its Infinite Splendor"....
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
fiery novels and sensation stories akin to those of English authors Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon under the nom de plume A. M. Barnard. Among...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...
space in 1983 on STS-7, and EileenCollins was the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle during STS-63 in 1995. Collins also became the first woman to...
(2015). The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. Harper Collins. p. 185. ISBN 9780062305213. Archived from the original on June 10, 2023...
Wright 1995 Virginia Apgar Ann Bancroft Amelia Bloomer Mary Breckinridge EileenCollins Elizabeth Hanford Dole Anne Dallas Dudley Mary Baker Eddy Ella Fitzgerald...