Shadow Politics with Senator Michael D. Brown Fly Me to the Moon - With Guest Astronaut, Educator and Consultant – Eileen M. Collins Our guest is Astronaut, Educator and Consultant – Eileen M. Collins! I'm so excited to interview a female astronaut who has paved the way for those who have come after her. We'll talk about the struggles she encountered on her journey to outer space, the privatization of space travel, the future of NASA and our exploration of the universe. Where do we go from here in our continued effort to have our reach exceed our grasp? Eileen M. Collins was an aviation trailblazer and role model her entire career — from being one of the United States Air Force’s first female pilots to commanding the space shuttle on its return-to-flight mission after the Columbia disaster. Collins is a former astronaut, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, a former military instructor and test pilot. Collins graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. After tours at Kennedy Space Center (shuttle launch and landing) and Johnson Space Center (shuttle engineer and capsule communicator), Eileen flew the space shuttle as pilot in 1995 aboard Discovery. Collins was also the pilot for Atlantis in 1997, where her crew docked with the Russian Space Station MIR. Her final space flight was as commander of Discovery in 2005 — the "Return to Flight Mission" after the tragic loss of Columbia. She has logged more than 6,751 hours in 30 different types of aircraft and more than 872 hours in space as a veteran of four space flights.