Eileen Collins was the first woman to command a space shuttle. A new documentary shows how she got there

Eileen Collins drove solo for the first time by following an ambulance after her mother’s suicide attempt. She later raised four children on welfare while dealing with an abusive, alcoholic husband, and her mother survived long enough for Collins to find her and call police. Collins then exceeded expectations by becoming the second woman admitted to U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and the first woman to pilot and command a space shuttle. Her composure and skills helped break the glass ceiling for female astronauts and demonstrated how to navigate patriarchal attitudes while balancing career, marriage, and motherhood. A documentary based on her memoir connects her journey to Artemis II and emphasizes both the dangers of space travel and the emotional burden on loved ones.

"The first time a 17-year-old Eileen Collins drove solo after getting her driver's license was to follow the ambulance carrying her mother after a suicide attempt. After two decades raising four children on welfare and fending off an abusive, alcoholic husband, her mother was done. It was Collins who found her in time and called the police. After such a traumatizing childhood, had Collins simply gone on to make a stable life, she would have beaten the odds."

"But she exceeded that, and in spectacular fashion, becoming the second woman admitted to the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and the first to pilot and command a space shuttle. Her skills and composure not only shattered the glass ceiling for future female astronauts but also modeled how to hurdle insurmountable challenges, navigate patriarchal attitudes, and creatively juggle career, marriage, and motherhood. "Until we are tested, we don't know what we are capable of," she says."

"In light of this spring's historic Artemis II mission, the film underscores Collins's contributions to the next wave of astronauts while reinforcing the dangers of space travel and the emotional burden it places on loved ones. Even the normally unflappable Collins, now 69, was unprepared for the response she's received at screenings. "This one man my age came up to me and said, `I cried through the whole thing,' and told me how much it touched him," she tells Fast Company."

""He is the third person who told me they cried. A young woman said to me, `That movie changed my life.' It feels really good to know that people are so positive." Based on Collins' 2021 memoir, Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars, the film chronicles her journey from a painfully shy, underprivileged teenager from Elmira, a working-class town in upstate New York, juggling odd jobs to pay for"

Read at Fast Company