American astronaut Eileen Collins, the primary girl to pilot an area shuttle, at her station on the Discovery through the STS-63 mission, February 1995.
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When Eileen Collins was launching her profession within the U.S. Air Force within the late Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, there have been no girls whose profession paths she might comply with. She served as a navy teacher and check pilot, then grew to become the primary girl to pilot and later command a NASA shuttle.
Collins, a retired Air Force colonel, will current “Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars” Oct. 18 on the Texas A&M University campus. The program will likely be from 10 – 11:30 a.m. in Rudder Auditorium and is hosted by Texas A&M LAUNCH and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF).
Before her presentation, Collins will current two ASF scholarships of as much as $15,000 – one to pc engineering senior Kevin Yao and the opposite to supplies science and engineering senior Mack Cleveland.
The program is free and open to the general public, however tickets are required for admission. Those can be found from the Memorial Student Center Box Office, open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday by way of Friday, by telephone at 979-845-1234, or on-line.
Collins will even be signing copies of her guide, “Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission,” from 1- 3 p.m. on the Barnes & Noble Texas A&M Bookstore.
Collins grew to become the U.S. Air Force’s first feminine flight teacher in 1979, and for the subsequent 11 years taught each flying and math. She was chosen as an astronaut in 1990 and have become the primary girl pilot of a U.S. area shuttle in 1995, serving on the orbiter Discovery for a rendezvous and docking mission to the Russian area station Mir. She piloted a second shuttle flight in May 1997, efficiently docking the Atlantis with Mir to switch personnel, gear and provides. In 1999, she grew to become the primary girl to command a shuttle mission.
The ASF presents the most important financial award obtainable to United States science, expertise, engineering and math (STEM) college students primarily based solely on benefit. ASF has awarded greater than $4 million in STEM scholarships since its institution in 1984 by six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts. ASF scholarships to Texas A&M are additionally supported by The Wreyford Family Foundation.
Sumana Datta, assistant provost for undergraduate research and government director of LAUNCH at Texas A&M, stated the scholarships present an amazing alternative to showcase the excellence of the college’s finest STEM majors to the world and reveal to college students simply how excellent they’re.
“Seeing their names alongside those of ASF Scholars from institutions like MIT, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Texas, Purdue and Washington University, among others, really brings home how much our ASF scholars have accomplished so far and what incredible potential for the future they represent — potential that the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation helps bring to fruition,” she stated.
