Excerpts:
Collins grew up in a public housing project in Elmira, N.Y. She used church collections and money from a pizza parlor job to pay for flying lessons. She studied mathematics and economics and Syracuse University and received masters degrees from Stanford University and Webster University.
Eileen Collins, the unflappable astronaut who charted a groundbreaking career as the first woman to pilot and command a space shuttle, is leaving the U.S. space agency.
Collins grew up in a public housing project in Elmira, N.Y. She used church collections and money from a pizza parlor job to pay for flying lessons. She studied mathematics and economics and Syracuse University and received masters degrees from Stanford University and Webster University.
Collins became the first woman chosen by NASA to be a spacecraft pilot while attending the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. She had been a mathematics professor and pilot instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy and an Air Force pilot instructor at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. She retired from the Air Force in 2005 with the rank of colonel. During her NASA career, she logged more than 872 hours in space.
Read the full story:
NASA TV / Reuters
Eileen Collins, center, works on Discovery's flight deck as the shuttle prepares to dock with the international space station on July 28, 2005.