When Eileen Collins was in the 4th grade, she read a Junior Scholastic magazine about astronauts and decided they were the “coolest people anywhere.” So, at the tender age of 19, Collins learned how to fly with the long-term goal of going to space. Reader, she didn’t just smash that goal - she became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle in 1995, and the first to command a Space Shuttle mission in July 1999, taking Columbia into Earth orbit to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Even before she was selected as an astronaut, Collins was smashing the glass ceiling in aviation, becoming the first female instructor pilot at Vance Air Force Base  A veteran of four space flights, Collins has logged over 872 hours in space.