Role Model

Eileen Collins wasn’t the first woman in space, but she was first in just about everything else.

Eileen M. Collins, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, was the first woman to be the pilot on a NASA space shuttle flight. In July 1999, she became the first woman to command a shuttle mission. And two years after the loss of Columbia in 2003, Collins was entrusted to command Discovery for NASA’s return-to-flight mission. Before joining NASA, Collins was in the first class of women to earn pilot’s wings at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma, and she would become Vance’s first female instructor pilot. In her book Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars, Collins weaves her tale of being a trailblazer with descriptions of what it’s like to live and work in space. She recently spoke with Air & Space Quarterly senior editor Diane Tedeschi.

You spent 20 years nurturing your dream of becoming an astronaut. And for the most part, you kept the dream a secret. Why?

I thought that family and friends in my hometown [Elmira, New York] would say: “You can’t do that because you’re a girl.” And I didn’t want to hear that, so I just never told anybody. I didn’t want people telling me why I couldn’t do it—that would have slowed me down. Later, when I was in the Air Force, I didn’t want to be walking around telling people, “I want to be an astronaut.” I didn’t think that was going to help me.

I never told anyone I wanted to be an astronaut until 1989, when I had to ask my boss in the Air Force to write a letter as part of my application to NASA. I was teaching mathematics at the Air Force Academy so I went down to my boss’ office and asked him if he would write a letter. I was a little worried he might say no. But he surprised me. He said: “I think you’d make a great astronaut, and I’d love to write a letter for you.”

What is the most important personality trait an astronaut should have?

By far, an astronaut needs to be able to communicate well and get along with people. Communication skills are so important, and they’re one of the hardest things to evaluate properly during NASA’s astronaut selection process. There are so many other things too—you need to be competent in all these technical skills. But those are easier to evaluate. It’s important to communicate well with mission control on the ground. It’s important to have a positive attitude and to keep those around you in a positive attitude, so that the mission can be completed.

What was your Air Force call-sign?

Mom: M- O- M. Now my very first call-sign—back in pilot training—was Crash. Crash Collins. But it did not fit. I was not the crash kind of personality. After a couple weeks, everyone stopped calling me Crash because they realized that wasn’t me. Instead, I was the kind of person who was always telling everyone: “Be safe out there. Don’t forget your earplugs. It’s raining out, take an umbrella.” And they were like: “Okay, Mom.” And it just stuck. They called me Mom through the Air Force and through my years as an astronaut.

Tell me about a memorable experience you had in an aircraft.

When I was an Air Force ROTC cadet between my sophomore and junior years in college, I went to my basic training. And they took us out to the flightline as a familiarization, and they had an A-7 out there. This was the summer of 1976. I got to sit in the cockpit of the A-7. It was my first time inside a military aircraft. The cockpit smelled like jet fuel. It was dirty, it was worn out. I think this airplane was flown in the Vietnam War. I was like a kid in a candy store sitting in that airplane—on the ejection seat. I kept looking at the switches and all the circuit breakers and the displays, and I was thinking: Will I ever be able to fly something like this? Even now, I remember that moment so well. It was hugely inspirational.

How does sleep on Earth compare with sleep in orbit?

I slept so much better in orbit. You don’t have to turn on your left side, turn on your right side, lie on your back—there are no hotspots. You’re just floating. So that helps. The other thing that helps you sleep in space is that fans are always blowing, which creates a constant background of white noise. And, of course, you’re working very hard in space. Being in orbit is a very new and unusual environment. Your brain is working overtime trying to adapt. At the end of your first day in space, you’re tired. Not physically tired, but you’re mentally tired because of the adaptation process. Now I will say on most of my missions, I did not sleep well on the first night. I kept reliving the launch in my mind—because I wanted to remember it. But every night after that, I slept wonderfully and never had any problems.

Interesting. I was thinking that zero-G might negatively affect the brain’s sleep mechanisms.

Let me say that it does for some astronauts. And as a commander, if I had a crew member who was having problems, they knew they could come to me and say, “I’m going to take a sleeping pill.” But I never took a sleeping pill in space—I made that decision early on. Because if there was an emergency in space, I’m the pilot. Or I’m the commander. I need to be able to jump in the seat and start working at a moment’s notice. But if my crew members wanted to, I was okay with that because I wanted them to be well rested.

What is your opinion of NASA’s vetting process for astronaut applicants?

It’s not perfect, but I think they do a very good job with it. Very seldom do they make a mistake. Occasionally, there is a person who does not finish astronaut training. Or maybe they decide it’s not for them, and they leave the program before they fly, but I would say that’s a very small number. Nowadays, the selection process is very open. So if someone is going to an interview at Johnson Space Center to be an astronaut, there’s plenty of information to help them prepare. NASA makes a point of looking for diversity as well. We often think of diversity as men and women of different racial backgrounds, but we also need astronauts who are diverse in age, diverse in where they come from geographically, and diverse in their skillsets.

Is there anyone in aerospace who particularly inspired you?

I met some of the Apollo astronauts, and I thought Neil Armstrong was extremely impressive. I worked on the NASA Advisory Council with him for a couple of years. And he was an engineer right up until the end. He was the only member of the Council who actually stood up and presented his briefings. He just loved his engineering work. 

Air and Space Live Chat

“Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: A Conversation with Astronaut Eileen Collins.” Collins recently spoke about her new book at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

See a recording of the chat.

Sponsored by Boeing