I wanted to learn how to fly, do well in school and math and science, and join the military, become an Air Force pilot, become a test pilot, and then lead into the astronaut program. The Chandra was launched on the shuttle Columbia on July 23rd of , almost on the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing. The three astronauts from Apollo 11 attended our launch. I thought that was pretty inspiring that we were able to have those two events happen so close together.
The Chandra Observatory was built and certified for five years, but it is still operating 20 years after launch, 15 years past its original life expectancy, and it's still working at the best of its ability. It's completely functional. Your job interview with NASA, what was that like? What do you remember most? The interview was actually in October of , and our class was called in January of to notify us that we were selected. We began our training in July of Now as far as the interview itself, there were about 12 people there.
I think nine or ten of them were astronauts, and we had a couple of other folks from human resources and people who were also part of the board. It was inspirational to walk into that room and shake hands with all of those astronauts who had flown in space.
They were my heroes. They were my role models. They were doing the job that I wanted to do. You would think that I would be nervous. You know, I think I might've been slightly nervous, but most of all I was excited. I actually didn't think they were going to select me. I was just happy to be there and have the opportunity to be at Johnson Space Center.
The whole interview was a six-day process. But there was only one face-to-face traditional type interview. I walked in, I shook hands, sat down and they started asking me questions: "Tell us what you did in high school," which was the first question, to "Tell us about your college years?
Why did you want to be a pilot? Why do you want to be an astronaut? They asked about various airplanes that I had flown.
It was a very genuine, warm human interaction between us. I never felt intimidated or any negative feelings. All I felt was a very positive feeling that this was a group of people that I really wanted to work with and be with. It was 90 percent medical. We flew in on a Saturday night and then Sunday was all psychological testing.
You took these different personality tests, like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Air Force did not until In , when Collins set her sights on attending Undergraduate Pilot Training school at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma, she was among the first group of females to apply. She was one of only four women chosen; the rest of her classmates total were men.
After a year of training, the twenty-three-old Collins became the U. Air Force's first female flight instructor. From until Collins taught flying at bases in Oklahoma, California, and Colorado. She also served as an assistant professor of mathematics at the U.
Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. In addition to teaching, Collins continued her own studies by attending classes at the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio, and earning a master of science degree in operations research from California's Stanford University in , and a master of arts degree in space systems management from Webster University, St.
Louis, Missouri. By , at the age of thirty-two, Collins was, according to Guy Gugliotta of the Seattle Times, "as hot a property as the Air Force had. While there she held her own in the male-dominated ranks of the military and cemented a reputation for being a cool, level-headed pilot. NASA was formed in and is the government agency responsible for monitoring the U.
In the early s, the future of the NASA space program remained in question, but the outlook for commercial space tourism was in full swing. After space exploration became a reality in the early s, many predicted that in the near future the average citizen would be able to take trips to space. Visionaries dreamed of space vacations, hotels on other planets, and families taking up residence on the moon.
In , the first private citizen, Japanese reporter Toyohiro Akiyama — , was allowed to accompany a Russian crew on a week-long mission to the Mir space station. Ten years later, in , administrators of the Mir space station again offered would-be tourists the opportunity to travel to space.
The reason was to offset the high cost of maintaining the station. On April 28, , U. South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth — became the third space tourist on April 25, , traveling aboard the Russian Soyuz TM mission for ten days. After the Columbia mission disaster, which resulted in the deaths of seven astronauts, commercial spaceflight was temporarily halted. Privately funded companies, however, continued to reach for the stars. The most well known was the Scaled Composites aviation company headed by U.
Rutan's crew of engineers succeeded in building an experimental aircraft called SpaceShipOne, capable of suborbital flight. In a suborbital flight a craft reaches just to the edge of space, and requires less velocity speed and power than a craft going into actual orbit.
On June 21, , SpaceShipOne performed its first successful manned spaceflight; it also became the first privately funded human spaceflight. On October 4 of that same year SpaceShipOne's creators took home the coveted Ansari X Prize, a competition funded by the X Prize Foundation, a nonprofit organization that encourages private space exploration. The rules specified that the winner would be the first privately funded, piloted spacecraft to reach an altitude of at least The launch had to be successfully performed twice in two weeks.
Based on SpaceShipOne's success Rutan predicted that commercial space travel for the average citizen was inevitable. Passengers onboard a suborbital flight would be taken on a short trip, but they would fully experience the weightlessness of space and a spectacular view of Earth. As Rutan commented to Brad Stone of Newsweek, "After this flight, I don't think it will be hard to convince anyone that space tourism is within the grasp of normal people.
In there were approximately astronauts worldwide. Astronauts usually have military backgrounds and are experienced test pilots. Because of the rigorous physical, mental, and scientific demands, they are among an elite group. She also cites the influence of the cadet-run Leadership Laboratory for readying her to become an officer.
They were all very welcoming. Following graduation, she was selected for pilot training and headed to San Antonio for a flight screening program. It was the first time in its history that the Air Force accepted women into pilot training right out of college—and Collins was one of eight women in that historic first group. She quickly mastered the T, a supersonic jet trainer, and was the first in her class of 40 to fly solo. She also became the first woman T instructor pilot at Vance.
Air Force photo courtesy of Eileen Collins. Collins continued her military career as a C aircraft commander and instructor pilot at Travis Air Force Base in California. She taught math at the U. Air Force Academy and was a T instructor pilot. The Air Force major had interviewed for a position as an astronaut mission specialist months before. He told her they wanted her to come to the space center, but never directly said what her role would be.
Collins was relieved by the news, which was accompanied by a sense of challenge for the future. Her long-held dream became reality when she graduated from test pilot school and officially joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in July As the first woman pilot, she wanted to be the best role model possible and knew she would be scrutinized.
The exact opposite worked for her-when she joined the corps, there were no astronauts in her field, operations research. When Collins goes to speaking engagements, one of the most commonly asked questions asked is what the most exciting part of space travel is. She says, "If you had asked me this question after my first mission, I would have said the launch. Now, I would say seeing the successful completion of the mission. There were so many people involved in the Chandra project and the launch, she said, and it's been really rewarding seeing the amazing pictures that Chandra has taken.
Fellow Marines surely were thankful Bernice Frankel, better known as Bea Arthur, was a friend, traveling down the road and The funeral on a sunny and chilly day drew dignitaries and friends from across the political and military spectrum.
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