NASA Losing First Female Commander

Eileen M. Collins, the first woman to command a space shuttle mission, is leaving the astronaut corps, NASA announced Monday.

Collins, 49, who commanded last year’s mission to the International Space Station, the first shuttle flight since the Columbia tragedy in 2003, plans to pursue private interests and spend more time with her family, the space agency said.

“Eileen Collins is a living, breathing example of the best that our nation has to offer,” said NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin. He said her bravery and determination as a pilot made her a “magnificent crew commander.... I am proud to know her and will greatly miss her at NASA.”

Collins is a veteran of four shuttle flights. She was the first woman to pilot a shuttle craft, taking Atlantis on the first shuttle mission to rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir in February 1995.

She commanded Columbia on its mission to launch the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in July 1999. Her last flight was as Discovery commander in 2005, a 14-day mission plagued by a series of mishaps, the most serious being the loss of insulating foam from the shuttle’s external fuel tank during launch.

After a 5.8-million-mile flight, she and pilot James Kelly brought Discovery down without incident at Edwards Air Force Base in California.