Page 7 - Aerotech News and Review – Women’s History Month 2025

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Anna “Marty” Martin Wyall explained why they came. “Eileen Collins was one of those women that has always looked at us as being her mentors, and we just think she’s great. That’s why we want to come see her blast off.” Betty Skelton Frankman expressed just how proud she was of Collins, and how NASA’s first female commander would be fulfilling her dream to fly in space. “In a way,” she said, “it’s like my dream come true.” In the ‘60s it was not possible for a woman to fly in space because none met the require- ments as laid out by NASA. But by the end of the twentieth century, women had been in the Astronaut Office for 20 years, and opportunities for women had grown as women were selected as pilot astronauts.
NASA named its second and only other female space shuttle com- mander, Pamela A. Melroy, to STS-120, and Peggy A. Whitson went on to com- mand the International Space Station. Melroy and Whitson shook hands in space, when their missions coincided, for another historic first — two women commanding space missions at the same time.
Twenty-six years ago, Eileen Col- lins’ command broke down barriers in human spaceflight. As the First Lady predicted, her selection led to other opportunities for women astronauts. More women continue to command
February 21, 2025
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NASA photograph
Astronaut Eileen M. Collins looks over a checklist at the commander’s station on the forward flight deck of the space shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, the first day of the mission. The most important event of this day was the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
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Sharon Farmer and White House Photograph Office
President William Jefferson Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton with Eileen Collins in the Oval Office.
spaceflight missions, including Ex- pedition 65 Commander Shannon Walker and Expedition 68 Commander Samantha Cristoforetti. More impor- tantly, Collins became a role model for
young people interested in aviation, engineering, math, science, and tech- nology. Her career demonstrated that there were no limits if you worked hard and pursued your passion.
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