Lt. Colonel Eileen Collins is the second woman known to have graduated as a test pilot and the first woman to pilot a space shuttle mission. She graduated in the year 1990 and her first space shuttle mission was the Discovery’s visit to the Mir Space Station in the year 1995. She had completed a total of 419 hours in space after which she was even given command of a second space shuttle mission the Columbia, in 2005 which sadly had a tragic ending. She is also looked upon as one of the pioneers in the world of aviation.

Here are some astounding facts about Lt. Col. Collins.

• Collins was born in Elmira in New York in 1956 and died in the Columbia space shuttle tragedy at the age of 47.

• Eileen wanted to become a pilot from a very early age for which she completed a Science degree from Corning Community college and a B.A degree in economics and maths from Syracuse University. She worked hard as a teenager taking up part-time jobs and saving up money for college that would eventually help her pursue her dreams to have them fulfilled. She had even had herself enrolled at a training course for pilots at Oklahoma’s Vance Air Force base.

• Eileen was the one of the earliest women in her class of pilot training and she completed her program in 1979 after which she stayed there as an instructor for 3 years.

• In 1983, Eileen worked in various military and humanitarian missions and flew C-141 cargo planes all over the world from her new base in Travis Air Force Base, California.

• She was a participant in the US led invasion of Grenada where she helped in the delivery of troops and evacuation of medical students.

• In 1986 Collins completed an MS degree at Stanford University in Operations Research and Space Systems Management at Webster University in the same year. Collins also got accepted in the Air Force Test Pilot School in Edwards Air Force Base in California, which is known for very competitive criteria for acceptance. After her graduation from there, she got accepted as an astronaut for NASA.

• In 1996, Eileen took a sabbatical from work and gave birth to a baby girl with hubby Pat Youngs who was also an erstwhile Air Force Pilot working with Delta Airlines. She had met him during her time as pilot for the C-141 during her military service.

• She was into golf, hiking, camping, photography and astronomy and liked to keep herself busy with these during her spare time.

• Collins created further records through her guidance of a spacecraft through a full 360 degree pitch maneuver. She was the first person to able to do so that helped other crew members of the ISS to inspect possible damage of the spacecraft through photographs taken.

• Eileen Collins piloted a 2nd mission on the Atlantis shuttle which involved delivery of 7000 lbs. of equipment at the Russian space station Mir.

Collins faced a tragic death along with fellow crew members in the space shuttle Columbia which was under her command and on its way back to the deployment. The spacecraft exploded off Cape Carnaveral in Florida.