American Scientist

Most people know that Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. But how many people know who the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle was, or who the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission was? The answer to both is Eileen Collins, who is also the subject of a new documentary entitled Spacewoman. The film hits U.S. theaters March 20 and is written and directed by Hannah Berryman.

The film braids together archival footage with interview excerpts from Collins and her family, fellow astronauts, and reporters, and also incorporates plenty of photographs and newspaper clips. Taken as a whole, the documentary provides a lens into Collins’s life and ambition, as well as how an astronaut career affects a family. (Let me add a caveat to that statement about family life: I think the family aspect is a fascinating piece to examine, and I also know that it’s much less talked about with male astronauts, or men in any career—though it should be. Because when we don’t acknowledge it, the labor done by partners that enables these men to succeed in their career and not worry about their home and family lives goes unrecognized.)

Collins grew up in Elmira, a struggling town in New York State. Her family was on food stamps, and she was, in her words, “mediocre in class” because of boys bullying her, as well as her shyness and a bad stutter. Their father was an active alcoholic when she was a child, and their mother struggled emotionally, often leaving Collins in charge of her siblings. It wasn’t easy, but at one point in the film, Collins says, “I think until we are tested, we don’t know what we are capable of.”

She was fascinated by flying from a young age and wanted to be a pilot; after high school she had wanted to join the U.S. Air Force, but her father was against it. After earning an associate's degree in math from Corning Community College, she went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in math and economics at Syracuse University, where she was also in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps and was one of only four women chosen for Undergraduate Pilot Training. She later earned her master of science degree in operations research from Stanford University in California and an master of arts degree in space systems management from Webster University in Missouri.

All of the first women astronauts were mission specialists, not pilots. NASA used to require that astronaut pilots needed to be military test pilots—which, of course, narrowed the pool quite a bit, since the United States Air Force didn't open pilot training to women until 1976, with the first woman graduating from the United States Naval Test Pilot School in 1983, and the first woman graduating from the United States Air Force Test Pilot School in 1988. Over time, this requirement changed. Collins was the second woman pilot to attend the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, graduating in 1989. In 1990, she was chosen to be part of NASA’s Astronaut Group 13 as an astronaut pilot.

In 1995, she was the pilot for the STS-63 mission on Space Shuttle Discovery, making history as the first woman shuttle pilot; and in 1997, she piloted STS-84. In 1999, she made history again by being the commander of STS-93, the mission that deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. After the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003, she was also the commander of STS-114, the “return to flight” mission that tested safety improvements and resupplied the International Space Station. In the documentary, launch footage showed debris coming off of the external tank, and various NASA officials in the film talk about the horror they felt when they reviewed the footage several hours after the launch. Collins became the first astronaut to do a complete 360-degree pitch maneuver of the Space Shuttle—essentially flipping the shuttle—so that astronauts on the ISS could take pictures of the potential damage to the underside of the orbiter to ensure its safe re-entry on its return to Earth.

While there is plenty of material for space enthusiasts in the film, the documentary also touches on the more challenging parts of Collins’s life, including the experience of being an active astronaut and a mother to young children. (Her husband Pat is also a pilot, for a commercial airline.) During interview footage with her daughter Bridget, it’s clear that life felt very hard for Bridget while her mother was involved with missions. She was around the age of seven when Collins retired from NASA, and she spoke about how she was always terrified that her mother would die in space. Viewers can sense the resentment emanating from Bridget at certain points, which makes for an interesting tension, especially considering that the only family member Collins is filmed with during interviews is her sister, when they discuss their family life growing up.

The film makes clear that Collins loved her job at NASA and took space flight exploration and its contributions very seriously. Safety was always on her mind, as were the implicit pressures of being the first woman pilot and commander. Spacewoman documents the career of a trailblazing astronaut, as well as some of the personal costs of the job. It joins recent films like Sally in showing a multifaceted view of what it really means to be an astronaut, including the various expectations and pressures, as well as the challenges that women astronauts have experienced.