Their Story Matters with Sara Troy and her guest Col. Eileen Collins, on air from April 11th

Retired NASA astronaut and the agency’s first female shuttle commander, Col. Eileen Collins

With all the craziness happening here on Earth, recent stories of big happenings in outer space haven’t received as much media attention as they might deserve.

Trashing the International Space Station, mountains of space junk clogging the atmosphere, gender-specific spacesuits for woke bureaucrats, top-secret Chinese space walks, and lots more have barely registered a blip on the public’s radar.

Retired NASA astronaut and the agency’s first female shuttle commander, Col. Eileen Collins shares her journey in space and what is happening now.

Introducing Retired Colonel Eileen Collins, NASA’s first female shuttle commander. As of today, 72 women have flown in space, and many of those have cited Col. Collins as an inspiration. Eileen Collins retired from the Air Force in 2005 and from NASA in 2006, having logged more than 6,751 hours in thirty different types of aircraft and spent 872 hours in space. She is the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame, among many other honors. Col. Collins recently served as an advisor to the National Space Council and is a board member of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation.

She retired from the Air Force in Jan 2005 and from NASA in May 2006 after a 28-year distinguished career. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first female pilot and first female commander of a space shuttle.

Collins graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in 1990. She was selected by NASA and became an astronaut in July 1991. After tours at Kennedy Space Center (shuttle launch and landing) and Johnson Space Center (shuttle engineer and capsule communicator), she flew the space shuttle as pilot in 1995 aboard Discovery. She was also the pilot for Atlantis in 1997, where her crew docked with the Russian Space Station MIR. Collins became the first woman commander of a U.S. spacecraft with shuttle mission Columbia in 1999, the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Her final space flight was as commander of Discovery in 2005, the “Return to Flight Mission” after the tragic loss of Columbia. She has logged more than 6,751 hours in 30 different types of aircraft and more than 872 hours in space as a veteran of four space flights.

Collins currently serves on several boards and advisory panels, is a professional speaker and an aerospace consultant. She is married with two children.

Collins is also a member of the Air Force Association, Order of Daedalians, Women Military Aviators, Women in Aviation International, U.S. Space Foundation, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Ninety-Nines.

The trade paperback edition of  Eileen Collins’ “Through The Glass Ceiling To The Stars-The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission” was recently published by Arcade and distributed by Simon and Schuster and is available at bookstores everywhere.

AMAZON

 www.eileencollins.com

 Eileen Collins | LinkedIn

Space info on what is happening up there.

Scientists sound alarm about mountains of deadly trash clogging the atmosphere

Should we spend big money to sunset the ISS or keep sharing it with the Russians? 

Chinese Government Covers Up Secret Space Walk

Does NASA really need “gendered-specific” space suits for our astronauts?

Astronauts splash down safely after almost 6 months on ISS

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