Portrait of Eileen Collins
NASA

Eileen Collins

Eileen Collins is an American astronaut who was born on November 19, 1956, in New York. Before she became an astronaut, Collins worked an Air Force test pilot. She has logged over 4700 hours of flight time on 30 types of aircraft.

Collins became an astronaut in 1991. She has spent over 419 hours in space on two spaceflights.

Collins made her first spaceflight in 1995 aboard STS-63. This was the first flight of the joint Russian-American Space Program. Collins became the first woman pilot of the Space Shuttle with this mission.

Collins made her second spaceflight as the pilot of STS-84. This was the Shuttle's sixth rendezvous and docking with the Russian Mir Space Station.


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