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The trailblazer who made history as Nasas first woman commander · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Eileen Collins made history as the first woman to pilot
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  Speaker 1: and command a spacecraft, paving the way for future generations.
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  Speaker 1: And now she's the subject of a new documentary called
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  Speaker 1: Space Woman, which looks at her remarkable achievements and trail
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  Speaker 1: blazing career. Our science editor Rebecca Morrell went to meet her.
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  Speaker 2: I've three engines up and burning three two one and
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  Speaker 2: whipped up of Space Shuttle Discovery.
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  Speaker 3: She's the woman who smashed through the glass ceiling and
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  Speaker 3: then just kept on going. Eileen Collins made history as
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  Speaker 3: the first woman to pilots and command to spacecraft.
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  Speaker 2: Was going to be hard to.
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  Speaker 3: Come on because I do like being in space so much.
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  Speaker 2: If you'll love on natural to be up here.
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  Speaker 3: Now she's the subject of a new documentary, space Woman.
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  Speaker 2: So take a look here. That's the heat shield around
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  Speaker 2: the bottom. You can see where there's some of those
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  Speaker 2: pieces broke off.
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  Speaker 3: And we met her at the Science Museum.
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  Speaker 2: I was reading a magazine article and the Gemini astronauts.
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  Speaker 2: I was probably nine years old, and I thought, that's
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  Speaker 2: the coolest thing. That's what I want to do. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: there were no women back then, but I just thought
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  Speaker 2: I'll be a lady astronaut, but.
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  Speaker 3: That little girl set her sights even higher. She wanted
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  Speaker 3: to be at the controls of a spacecraft, and the
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  Speaker 3: only way to achieve this was to become a test
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  Speaker 3: pilot in the military. After a decade in the Air Force,
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  Speaker 3: she'd made it and was accepted by NASA. She was
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  Speaker 3: chosen to pilot to her first mission in nineteen ninety five,
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  Speaker 3: and the eyes of the world were on.
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  Speaker 2: Her as the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't want people to say, oh, look, the woman
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  Speaker 2: made a mistake, because it wasn't just about me. It
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  Speaker 2: was about the women to follow me. And I wanted
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  Speaker 2: there to be a reputation for women pilots that was, hey,
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  Speaker 2: they're really good.
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  Speaker 3: She was so good she was quickly promoted to commander, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: a job she juggled with being a mum to two
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  Speaker 3: young children.
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  Speaker 2: I felt like I had the two best jobs in
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  Speaker 2: the world. I was a mother and I was a
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  Speaker 2: Space Shuttle commander. I'm going to tell you it is
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  Speaker 2: harder to be a parent than to be a Space
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  Speaker 2: Shuttle commander. But the best training I ever had from
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  Speaker 2: being a commander was being a parent, Because sometimes you
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  Speaker 2: have to say no, you have to learn how to
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  Speaker 2: say no to people.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, who's to ignition and lift off a space shuttle
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  Speaker 3: Columbia with But in two thousand and three, the shuttle
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  Speaker 3: program experienced a catastrophic failure. As the Columbia spacecraft launched,
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  Speaker 3: a piece of foam broke loose, damaging its heat shield.
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  Speaker 3: The shuttle broke up as it re entered the atmosphere,
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  Speaker 3: killing all seven astronauts on board. After a two year gap,
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  Speaker 3: Eileen Collins was chosen to command the next mission. Did
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  Speaker 3: she think about quitting?
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  Speaker 2: I think winning the mission would have been very the
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  Speaker 2: opposite of brave, and I wanted to be a brave leader.
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to be a confident leader. I wanted to
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  Speaker 2: install that confidence in other people. We ended up in dunning.
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  Speaker 3: But during her launch, the nightmare scenario happened again. Some
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  Speaker 3: phone broke off. You are very surprised to hear that
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  Speaker 3: a large piece of folk had gone up, and frankly,
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  Speaker 3: we were disappointed to hear that could have happened, and
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  Speaker 3: no one knew what the damage was. The solution putting
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  Speaker 3: the shuttle through a three hundred and sixty degree somersault,
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  Speaker 3: closing at a rate of one and a half feet
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  Speaker 3: per second. Well, it passed on to the International Space
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  Speaker 3: Station so astronauts could thoroughly check it out. It was
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  Speaker 3: something that had never been done before.
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  Speaker 2: And there were engineers and managers saying that can't be done.
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  Speaker 2: They can't be done. You know all these reasons why
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  Speaker 2: it's too dangerous. And after I listened to the discussion,
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  Speaker 2: they knew I was the commander. I said, it sounds
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  Speaker 2: like we can do it, and it became just an
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  Speaker 2: elegant solution, and I loved it.
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  Speaker 3: The somersault revealed there was damage to the shuttles underside
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  Speaker 3: and a spacewalk was needed to fix it. Steeper than
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  Speaker 3: that of a standard commercial airliner's descent, it meant the
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  Speaker 3: crew could safely make it home. The flight was over,
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  Speaker 3: and for Eileen Collins, it was the last time she
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  Speaker 3: would go to space. So what advice would the astronaut
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  Speaker 3: give to kids who share her dream?
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  Speaker 2: Do your homework, listen to your teacher, pay attention in class,
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  Speaker 2: and read books and that will give them something to
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  Speaker 2: focus on.
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  Speaker 3: Eileen says she has no regrets about ending her astronaut
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  Speaker 3: career when she did, but if someone said, we've got
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  Speaker 3: an extra space on that mission.
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  Speaker 2: Would you be tempted? Yes, I would love to go
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  Speaker 2: on a mission. Someday when I'm an old lady. Maybe
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  Speaker 2: I'll give a chance to go back in space.
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  Speaker 3: Those that follow in her footsteps will learn just how
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  Speaker 3: much she achieved, not only as a woman, but as
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  Speaker 3: a formidable pilot and commander. Rebecca morrele Beepty News.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm really thrilled to say that Eileen Collins will
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  Speaker 1: be joining me in about an hour's time here on
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  Speaker 1: the set. Really looking forward to talking to her. What
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  Speaker 1: an inspiration and an incredible story and lots of advice
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  Speaker 1: and words of wisdom that she has to share with
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  Speaker 1: us as well.