Former astronaut Eileen Collins sits at the pilot’s station aboard space shuttle Discovery during a hotfiring procedure on Feb. 2, 1995.
Former astronaut Eileen Collins sits at the pilot’s station aboard space shuttle Discovery during a hotfiring procedure on Feb. 2, 1995.
Selected by NASA in January 1990, Collins became the first woman pilot of a Space Shuttle and the first woman to command a shuttle mission. Over four missions—STS-63 Discovery, STS-84 Atlantis, STS-93 Columbia, and STS-114 Discovery—she logged over 537 hours in space. Highlights of her missions include the Chandra X-Ray Observatory deployment, scientific experiments, and evaluation of new flight safety procedures.
Learn more about women astronauts and their significant accomplishments to spaceflight.
Image Credit: NASA