Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars

Meet the Speaker: Colonel Eileen Collins, USAF (Ret.)

NASA Astronaut, U.S. Air Force Test Pilot

Eileen Collins is a retired NASA Astronaut and United States Air Force Colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Col. Collins retired on May 1, 2006 to pursue private interests, including service as a board member of USAA. One of America’s most admired women, Col. Collins became the first female to pilot a U.S. spacecraft with the Discovery shuttle flight in 1995, and the first female commander on the 1999 Columbia shuttle flight. In 2005, NASA tapped Col. Collins to command the space shuttle Discovery’s historic Return to Flight mission, NASA’s first crewed flight following the loss of space shuttle Columbia in 2003. Col. Collins has logged a total of 872 hours in space.  Col. Collins is a graduate of Syracuse University with a baccalaureate degree and dual major in mathematics and economics in 1978. She received a master of science degree in operations research from Stanford University in 1986, and a master of arts degree in space systems management from Webster University in 1989. She has received three honorary doctorates, including an honorary Doctor of Science from the National University of Ireland, conferred by University College Dublin. She currently serves as an advisor to the National Space Council.  She is the author of Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission (Oct 2021). Col. Collins is married and mother of two grown children. And, in 2016, she was inducted in the Irish-American Hall of Fame.

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Monday, March 21, 2022 7:00 pm

This event was available as a LIVE ONLY virtual event. No recording, podcast, or recap is avaiable.

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