NASA selected Collins to join theastronaut corps in 1990 and she completed her initial training one year later.But her interest in spaceflight took root much earlier. Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training at Oklahoma's VanceAir Force Base in 1979 and was teaching serving as a mathematics and flightinstructor at Edwards Air Force Base when selected as an astronaut.
"It's very important to thecountry to have more people that have flown in space because we take thatspaceflight experience with us, which is a valuablething to have when you go on to design future spacecraft and educate youngpeople."Ĭollins is a graduate of SyracuseUniversity, where she studied mathematics and economics, and received twomaster degrees from Stanford University and Webster University, respectively. "It's important to me that theseyoung people get a chance to fly," Collins said. Though a native of Elmira, New York, Collinssaid she will remain in Houston, Texas - home to NASA's Johnson Space Center -for the time being. "Now that it's been eight or nine months, I'm just going to chill outand finish the remaining work to be done from STS-114, then it's on tosomething new."Ĭollins said she hopes herretirement will also allow newer astronauts an opportunity to fly before the shuttlefleet itself retires in 2010.
"They've put up with all of mytraining schedules and then I was gone for five weeks over last summer,"Collins said of her family, citing the threeweeks of quarantine and two weeks in space during her last mission, not tomention the many national and international appearances that followed herreturn.
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