Eileen Collins - First Female Shuttle Commander
ESA TV Exchanges
Eileen Collins is the first ever female commander of the Space Shuttle, and her mission is truly outstanding: to make the Shuttle fly again, on mission STS-114, to be launched between 13 and 31 July 2005.
Today's Exchange provides a portrait of this extraordinary woman, with new soundbites and trainig footage, and also an interview with Michel Tognini, Head of ESA's Astronaut Centre who trained and flew with Eileen Collins on Shuttle mission STS-93.
The script is online as a PDF file under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS40598.pdf
A preview Mediaplayer clip can be downloaded from http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mplo/eileenc_11062005_wmplow.wmv
More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/preparingtravel/rtf_interview_collins.html
first female commander of the Shuttle
STS-93
STS-114
Return to flight of Space Shuttle
Eileen Collins
Shuttle Crew
role of women in space
itw Eileen Collins
itw Michel To

EILEEN COLLINS ñ First Female Shuttle Commander
SHOTLIST A-ROLL
TC 10 00 00 Generic and Title
TC 10 00 40 The history of space conjures up a wealth of names known to all of us. And while most of them seem to be men, the space almanac also contains those of women. One name of special significance today is Eileen Collins. First female commander of a space shuttle, now assigned the most challenging mission since the disaster that befell the Columbia: to take the shuttle back into space again. Hopes are certainly high! However, the challenge of commanding NASAís first shuttle return to flight only increases the determination of a woman that, tired of dreaming and having saved $1000 at the age of 19, went to her local airfield and told the flight instructors that she wouldn't leave until they taught her to fly! Which is exactly what they did.
TC 10 01 30 CLIP 1 Eileen Collins, NASA Astronaut ëThe year that I started military pilot training, 1978, was the same year that NASA took the first women into the shuttle