1/3/2024 0 Comments Space shuttle cockpitIn 1976, women had different fitness standards from the men, but Collins was granted permission to do the morning run with the men, who had to run 12 furlongs (2.4 km) in less than 12 minutes. Six weeks after graduating from Corning, Collins reported to Rickenbacker Air Force Base for her basic training. Collins noted their names and followed their progress and subsequent careers with interest, hoping to soon follow in their footsteps. The first ten women chosen for pilot training in September 1976 were all serving Air Force officers with four-year college degrees. In 1975, the United States Air Force (USAF) changed its policy to allow women to train as pilots, although only for non-combat missions. She then entered Syracuse University, which she chose because it had an Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) program. Instead, she attended Corning Community College, where she earned an associate degree in mathematics in 1976. After graduating from Elmira Free Academy in 1974, Collins considered enlisting in the US Air Force, but her father was adamantly opposed. The family home was badly damaged by flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes in June 1972, and with finances tight, she was able to convince her mother to allow her to transfer to Elmira Free Academy, a public high school. Patrick's School in Elmira up to the eighth grade and then Notre Dame High School, a Catholic high school, but Collins was unhappy there. She expressed an interest in becoming a pilot, reading books such as Fate Is the Hunter and God Is My Co-Pilot, and subscribing to Air Force Magazine. She participated in Girl Scouts, and attended the El-Ne-Ho summer camp. As a child, she was shy and needed speech therapy for her stutter. Her parents separated when she was young, and her mother took a job as a stenographer at the Elmira Correctional Facility. After the war he managed the family bar, then became a surveyor. Her father served in the US Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II. She has three siblings: an older brother, Edward a younger sister, Margaret and a younger brother, James. Her ancestors came to America in the mid-1800s, settling in Pennsylvania and Elmira, New York. Her parents were James Edward and Rose Marie Collins. This was necessary so astronauts aboard the ISS could take photographs of the orbiter's belly, to ensure there was no threat from debris-related damage during re-entry.Įileen Marie Collins was born in Elmira, New York, on November 19, 1956. During this mission she became the first astronaut to fly the orbiter through a complete 360-degree pitch maneuver. She became the first woman to command a US spacecraft with STS-93, launched in July 1999, which deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and 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). She was also the pilot for STS-84 in 1997. In recognition of her achievement as the first female Space Shuttle pilot, she received the Harmon Trophy. She flew the Space Shuttle as pilot in 1995 aboard STS-63, which involved a space rendezvous between Space Shuttle Discovery and the Russian space station Mir. In 1990, Collins was selected to be a pilot astronaut with NASA Astronaut Group 13. In 1989, Collins became the second woman pilot to attend the USAF Test Pilot School, and she graduated with class 89B. 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. From 1986 to 1989, she was an assistant professor in mathematics and a T-41 instructor pilot at the U.S. 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. 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. She was one of four women chosen for Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. 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.Ī 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. Eileen Marie Collins (born November 19, 1956) is a retired NASA astronaut and United States Air Force (USAF) colonel.
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