Eileen Collins
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Eileen Marie Collins is an American retired NASA astronaut and Air Force colonel. A flight instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle and the first to command a
Collins in 1998
With her T-38 when she graduated from flight school at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma in August 1979
With an F-4 Phantom II at Edwards Air Force Base on graduation from the USAF Test Pilot School in June 1990
Near a NASA T-38 trainer jet at Ellington Field near the Johnson Space Center in Houston
STS-93
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STS-93 in 1999 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of Columbia, and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this
Eileen Collins
…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…
Chandra and its Inertial Upper Stage, prior to deployment from Columbia's payload bay
Left to right: Collins, Hawley, Ashby, Tognini, ColemanSpace Shuttle program← STS-96 (94)STS-103 (96) →
STS-93 launch
Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a Space Shuttle during this mission.