Eileen Collins knew she wanted to be an astronaut at nine years old. It didn't matter that no astronauts were women at the time. She determined she would be a "lady astronaut." Collins went on to become an accomplished military pilot and the first woman to pilot the space shuttle in 1995, and the first woman space shuttle commander in 1999. Collins storied career included commanding Discovery on NASA's "Return to Flight" mission in 2005, where she performed a historic rendezvous pitch maneuver.
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| By Robert Markowitz - Great Images in NASA (archive) Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6449908 |
Collin's book, Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission, which chronicled her journey to NASA and space, was released in 2021. In 2024, director Hannah Berryman, alongside Eileen Collins and co-writer Jonathon H.Ward, created the documentary Spacewoman. The documentary has enjoyed a limited release in the UK and was screened at the DOC NYC film festival. It is expected to be released for general viewing in 2026.
In a BBC interview in October, Collins spoke about her years breaking glass ceilings to become a space shuttle pilot and commander. She notes the pressure and importance she felt being the first woman, knowing she was creating a path for others to follow.
"As the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle, I worked very hard at that because I didn't want people to say, 'Oh look, the woman has made a mistake'. Because it wasn't just about me, it was about the women to follow me," she says. "And I wanted there to be a reputation for women pilots that was: 'Hey, they're really good'."
Read the rest of Collins' thoughts from the BBC interview at the BBC website. View the trailer for Spacewoman on YouTube. And if you can't wait until the release in 2026, you can always read the book first! Find out more at eileencollins.com.
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