Eileen Collins Quotes

We want to explore. We're curious people. Look back over history, people have put their lives at stake to go out and explore ... We believe in what we're doing. Now it's time to go.

I don't think of myself as being a woman and having anything to prove.

I'm honored to be the first woman to have the opportunity to command the shuttle. I don't really think about that on a day-to-day basis because I really don't need to.

The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so thin. We know that we don't have much air - we need to protect what we have.

The vast majority of the shuttle program was a success. We learned so much about how a reusable spacecraft interacts with its environment, how it ages-and what to design next time.

My daughter just thinks that all moms fly the Space Shuttle

I have no nerves, no emotion, no pressure.

I wanted to apply to the astronaut program after the Challenger accident