Current Honoree
Eileen M. Collins
Eileen M. Collins used her good grades, flying experience, and a letter of recommendation from her ROTC supervisor to go straight from college into Air Force pilot training and then on to achieve one
of the most recognizable accomplishments of our day: Ms. Collins was the first American woman to pilot a spacecraft, the space shuttle Discovery A native of Elmira, Ms. Collins graduated from Corning Community College in 1976 and Syracuse University in 1978. She learned to fly when she was 20, earning her pilot's license in 1977. Ms. Collins was hand-picked by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1990 to become an American astronaut. In February 1995 she became the first American woman to pilot a
space shuttle, the Discovery , which represented the first flight of the new joint Russian-American space program. Ms. Collins also served as a pilot on the shuttle Atlantis in May 1997, the sixth shuttle | |
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