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Eileen Collins: Elmira's Space Hero
  "When I was a child, I dreamed about space - I admired pilots, astronauts, and I've admired explorers of all kinds. It was only a dream that I would someday be one of them. It is my hope that all children, boys and girls, will see this mission and be inspired to reach for their dreams, because dreams do come true!" - Eileen Collins, astronaut
 Colonel Eileen Marie Collins made history when she became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission, STS-93 Columbia, on July 22-27, 1999. A long and successful road led Collins to that historical mission. The road began in Elmira, New York.
Eileen Collins was born in Elmira on November 19, 1956. As the space age unfolded in the '60s, Eileen's excitement over flying grew. She watched Star Trek and Lost in Space on television and read stories about famous women aviators. Inspired by stories of Amelia Earhart, and women Air Force service pilots in World War II, Collins saved enough money to earn her pilot's license in 1977.
Eileen attended St. Patrick's School through the eighth grade, followed by two years at Notre Dame High School and the last two at Elmira Free Academy. She lived in Hoffman Court throughout most of her childhood before moving in the early '70s to Second Street across from the cemetery.
"Eileen's love of flying really started with Star Trek," said her mother, Rose. "She used to come straight home from school and watch it whenever she could." According to Rose, they often took her to the Elmira-Corning Regional Airport to watch the planes land and take off. They also spent time on Harris Hill's glider field.
"While in high school Eileen worked at Pudgies Pizza on South Main Street to pay for her flying lessons at the airport," said Rose. "But her first job came much earlier when Father Eagan got Eileen involved in counting envelope money at St. Patrick's Church."
According to her mother, Father Eagan remained very influential in Eileen's life and she remains very religious to this day.
In an earlier interview, her parents described their daughter as "a very ordinary person, a down-to-earth individual. She's very thoughtful. Nobody handed her anything. Everything she is today, she's earned." That is evidenced in part by Eileen's impressive attainment of educational goals.
Eileen graduated with the Elmira Free Academy class of 1974. Two years later she earned an associate degree in mathematics/science from Corning Community College. Next, in 1978, Eileen attended Syracuse University on a two-year scholarship and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and economics. She went on to Stanford University where Eileen earned a Master of Science degree in Operations Research in 1986. Three years later she completed a Master of Arts degree in Space Systems Management from Webster University.
While pursuing an education, Eileen became one of the first women to go directly from college into Air Force pilot training. She became a T-38 instructor pilot from 1979 to 1982, then an aircraft commander and instructor in C-141 cargo jets at Travis Air Force Base. Eileen graduated from the United States Air Force Test Pilot School in 1990, and was selected for the astronaut program in July of 1991.
 To date, Eileen has flown on four space shuttle missions. She became the first woman pilot of a space shuttle February 2-11, 1995 on the first flight of the new joint Russian-American Space Program on mission STS-63. While in space, the astronauts rendezvoused with the Russian Space Station Mir, deployed and retrieved a satellite, and conducted a space walk.
Her second space shuttle mission was May 15-24, 1997 with mission STS-84. This was NASA's sixth shuttle docking with Mir. During the flight, the crew conducted a number of secondary experiments and transferred nearly four tons of supplies and experiment equipment between Atlantis and the Mir station.
Eileen took her place in history again on the Columbia, July 22-27, 1999, when she became the first woman to command a shuttle mission for mission STS-93. The team deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Designed to conduct comprehensive studies of the universe, the telescope enables scientists to study exotic phenomena such as exploding stars, quasars, and black holes.
When asked in an interview by Editor William W. Ryan if she had gone where she intended in her career and if becoming an astronaut was something she aimed for early on, Eileen replied,
"I can't give any specific moment when I decided what I wanted to do. When I was a child, there were no women astronauts and no women military pilots. But, as I grew up and started learning more, the space program started becoming more visible. My first memory was the Gemini program in the mid-1960s.
"Also, of course, the Vietnam War started in the late '60s. That was when I first started to become aware that there were astronauts and there were military pilots. When the Vietnam War was over, and I was older, I started reading about the Vietnam War, and the pilots really became my heroes. As I got older, I started wondering why we didn't have women in these fields.
"Then, in 1976, the Air Force selected the first women to be active duty pilots. I graduated from college in 1978, the year that NASA first selected women mission specialists for the Space Shuttle program. At that point, it became a realistic goal for me, so I applied. With a great desire to join the military, I decided to join, whether I got to fly airplanes or not."
Eileen Collins was slated to return to space in March of 2003 when the destruction of the Columbia upon re-entry over Nacogdoches Texas on February 1, 2003 grounded both her and the space program indefinitely.
She made history again on July 26, 2005 when she commanded NASA's Return to Flight mission, STS-114 of the space shuttle Discovery. While in space, Collins and her crew docked with the International Space Station and used new equipment and techniques to inspect the shuttle for damage that results from the liftoff of the shuttle into space.
>Commander Collins NASA Bio
>NASA article on the Return to Flight Mission: STS-114
>NASA's dedication to the crew of the Columbia
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Eileen Collins is also featured on the Welcome sign at the entrance to the City at Interstate 86 and Church Street.
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