Eileen Collins

Eileen Collins
Collins in 1998
Born	Eileen Marie Collins (1956-11-19) 19 November 1956 (age 68) Elmira, New York, U.S.
Education	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 Shuttle Discovery 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.