Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars

In this Feb. 3, 1995 image taken onboard space shuttle Discovery on flight day one of the STS-63 mission, astronaut Eileen M. Collins—the first woman to pilot the shuttle—is at the pilot’s station during a “hotfiring” procedure prior to rendezvous with the Russian Mir Space Station. [Courtesy: NASA]

Retired astronaut and Air Force Colonel, Eileen M. Collins is author of Though the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission. In the book, she weaves the reflections on spaceflight with her personal memories and mission observations into a narrative that reads as a case study on leadership. Collins contends that she possessed no special mathematical talent or athletic aptitude, but instead she credits the diligence to apply herself to studying all she could, reading all she could, and analyzing mistakes in a four-step process: to acknowledge them, learn from them, apply new procedures, and move on. Collins also describes the “overview effect” felt by astronauts as they see the planet Earth from above. “Once you see our beautiful planet with your own eyes, the experience cements the importance of taking care of our planet.”

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