[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 58 (Friday, May 12, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E814]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        CONGRATULATING COLONEL EILEEN COLLINS ON HER RETIREMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 11, 2006

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure today to honor 
the achievements of Colonel Eileen Collins, an inspirational member of 
the aerospace community. Last week, she announced her decision to 
retire from NASA, where her passion for discovery and her leadership 
skills will be greatly missed.
  Building on a childhood love for airplanes and space, Col. Collins 
studied mathematics and science, earning her associate degree from 
Corning Community College in 1976, her bachelor's degree from Syracuse 
University in 1978, her master of science degree from Stanford 
University in 1986, and her master of arts degree from Webster 
University in 1989.
  Col. Collins' career included many firsts: she was the first woman to 
enter Air Force pilot training straight from college, the first woman 
to pilot a space shuttle, and the first woman to serve as commander for 
a space shuttle mission. She also served her country as an Air Force 
pilot and as a mathematics teacher at the Air Force Academy. Her last 
space flight took place during the summer of 2005 when she commanded 
the STS-114 space shuttle mission, the first mission following the 2003 
Columbia space shuttle disaster. As we've all come to expect, she 
carried out her duties on this mission with distinction. In sum, as 
noted by the Colorado Springs Gazette referred to her nearly 30-year 
career as an ``era'' in spaceflight. And I think that that is a truly 
fitting description of her legacy.
  I would like to include the following article with more details about 
Col. Collins' extraordinary work. The progress she made for both her 
gender and her country are admirable.

            [From the Colorado Springs Gazette, May 8, 2006]

                      Happy (Con)Trails to Collins

       For some reason, perhaps buried deep in the subconscious, 
     people love to mark events in their lives. The media are 
     especially fond of memorializing moments we think should be 
     important to readers and viewers. Last week, when Eileen 
     Collins announced her retirement from NASA, it truly marked 
     the end of an era in spaceflight. She was an astronaut who 
     represented the pioneering spirit that drove mankind to 
     explore space.
       From an early age, she longed to fly airplanes and dreamed 
     of space travel. One biography pointed out that her parents 
     used to take her to the airport to watch planes land and take 
     off. She worked hard in school and earned multiple degrees in 
     mathematics and space-related subjects. After college, her 
     career literally took off.
       She was among the first women to go directly from college 
     to Air Force pilot training. She spent several years flying 
     various aircraft for Uncle Sam and continued her education as 
     a student at the Air Force Institute of Technology. From 
     1986-1989 she taught mathematics and was an instructor pilot 
     at the Air Force Academy.
       Tapped by NASA for astronaut training while she was 
     attending the Air Force's test pilot school in 1990, she 
     later became the first woman selected for shuttle pilot 
     training, was the first woman pilot of the space shuttle and 
     the first woman commander of a space shuttle mission. She 
     retired from the Air Force in January 2005 and will leave her 
     NASA duties later this month.
       Collins has had a career of which anyone could be proud and 
     many can only dream of. We wish her blue skies and tailwinds 
     as she pursues other interests in the aerospace industry.

                          ____________________