Eileen Collins burst through the glass ceiling aboard the space shuttle

Twenty-five years ago, Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a spaceflight. A test pilot, mathematician and trailblazer, this soft-spoken Air Force Colonel helmed Space Shuttle Columbia when it roared into Florida’s post-midnight darkness on July 23, 1999. Her STS-93 crew deployed NASA’s $1.5 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory—at 25 tons, it was the shuttle’sContinue reading “Eileen Collins burst through the glass ceiling aboard the space shuttle”
The post Eileen Collins burst through the glass ceiling aboard the space shuttle appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.