Eileen collins
Eileen collins
The first female pilot of a Space Shuttle as well as the first female commander of a U.S. Spacecraft.
ProfessionAstronaut
Date of Birth19 November 1956
CityElmira, NY
attention bit dangerous hardware learn listened mistakes paid reminding talking
Had we listened a little bit more and paid attention to the hardware that was talking to us, we probably could have prevented the accident. We need to learn from the mistakes we made ... I am continually reminding myself that we're in a dangerous business.
bring full potential shuttle space station
Getting the shuttle back up there is just going to bring the space station back to its full potential.
aware commander cool crew difference female honestly job male rest woman
I can honestly say that in my job day to day, I'm not really aware that there's any difference between male and female crew members. It may be cool to the rest of the world that a woman is the commander of this flight. I think that's great.
believe gap previous seen similar
I believe the gap fillers are similar to what we had seen in previous flights.
enjoy guys
You guys made the right decision. We're going to enjoy another orbit.
definitely mission
We have definitely accomplished all our mission objectives.
cleaning looks might
Looks like I might have some cleaning up to do when I get home.
astronaut program wanted
I wanted to apply to the astronaut program after the Challenger accident
pressure nerves emotion
I have no nerves, no emotion, no pressure.
moon design age
The vast majority of the shuttle program was a success. We learned so much about how a reusable spacecraft interacts with its environment, how it ages-and what to design next time.
opportunity thinking firsts
I'm honored to be the first woman to have the opportunity to command the shuttle. I don't really think about that on a day-to-day basis because I really don't need to.
mom daughter thinking
My daughter just thinks that all moms fly the Space Shuttle
air eggs atmosphere
The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so thin. We know that we don't have much air - we need to protect what we have.
thinking being-a-woman prove
I don’t think of myself as being a woman and having anything to prove,