The long-awaited memoir of a trailblazer and role model who is telling
her story for the first time.
Eileen Collins was an aviation pioneer her entire career, from her
crowning achievements as the first woman to command an American space
mission as well as the first to pilot the space shuttle to her early
years as one of the Air Force's first female pilots. She was in the
first class of women to earn pilot's wings at Vance Air Force Base and
was their first female instructor pilot. She was only the second woman
admitted to the Air Force's elite Test Pilot Program at Edwards Air
Force Base. NASA had such confidence in her skills as a leader and pilot
that she was entrusted to command the first shuttle mission after the
Columbia disaster, returning the US to spaceflight after a two-year
hiatus. Since retiring from the Air Force and NASA, she has served on
numerous corporate boards and is an inspirational speaker about space
exploration and leadership.
Eileen Collins is among the most recognized and admired women in the
world, yet this is the first time she has told her story in a book. It
is a story not only of achievement and overcoming obstacles but of
profound personal transformation. The shy, quiet child of an alcoholic
father and struggling single mother, who grew up in modest circumstances
and was an unremarkable student, she had few prospects when she
graduated from high school, but she changed her life to pursue her
secret dream of becoming an astronaut. She shares her leadership and
life lessons throughout the book with the aim of inspiring and passing
on her legacy to a new generation.
