VAntage Point American Astronaut: Eileen Collins Air Force Veteran Eileen Collins is a NASA astronaut who was the first female pilot and commander of a space shuttle. Born in November 1956 in Elmira, New York, Eileen Collins remembers the moon landing when she was a child. In an interview with Smithsonian Magazine, she stated that after reading about the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts, she wanted to become one herself. In high school, she kept this goal a secret, aware that it might be a challenge to become an astronaut as a woman. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1978 and earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and science.