Eileen Collins

Record year2005

summaryUnder new inspection and return-to-flight conditions, she commanded the crew to complete an actual flight and space-station mission.

M rationaleReturn to flight was a specific high-risk system validation and service, but remediation was mainly completed by NASA's large team, so the individual's share is limited.

attribution rationaleEileen Collins .12; STS-114 crew .20; return-to-flight mission ground safety, control, and support team .35; International Space Station crew and international partners .13; prior work in Space Shuttle safety and flight .12; unresolved share .08. Shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryThis counts the 2005 STS-114 return-to-flight mission's flight, on-orbit inspections, and space-station resupply service, including Collins's execution of the pitch manoeuvre for Space Station imaging; the accident investigation, prior remediation engineering, and the entire Space Shuttle programme are not credited to this item.

Evidence gapsThe full Columbia Accident Investigation and return-to-flight decisions have not been read; the individual's specific advice on safety procedures has not been verified. The actual mission summary has been read to supplement the pre-flight preview in the original historical summary; complete accident and return-to-flight decision archives have not been read.

Record year1999

summaryIntegrated crew and ground operations in the commanding role to complete deployment of a specific high-value scientific payload.

M rationaleEstimated from actual delivery of the scientific-payload deployment and experiments served by the same mission, excluding the telescope itself and subsequent astronomical discoveries; the individual share is not used to reduce the outcome M again.

attribution rationaleEileen Collins .12; STS-93 crew .19; NASA mission-control, engineering, and operations teams .25; Chandra payload-integration and deployment-support team .25; prior work on the Space Shuttle and telescope deployment .12; unresolved share .07. The shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryCounts only Collins's command of STS-93 and the flight mission that carried the Chandra telescope into its deployment orbit; the telescope's invention, scientific discoveries, and subsequent operation are not credited to the mission commander. Ultraviolet imaging, plant/cell, vibration, and television-equipment experiments on the same flight are included as mission service, without creating a new M repeatedly for each carried experiment.

Evidence gapsMission-anomaly response records have not been checked; subsequent scientific results of the payload are excluded.

Record year1995–1997

summaryPerformed piloting duties in two specific missions and supported the evolution of cooperation from rendezvous to actual docking and transfer.

M rationaleEstimated from actual mission service for space-station rendezvous and transfer of personnel and supplies, without counting the entire U.S.-Russian space-cooperation system; individual operations and ground-system labor are distinguished through the attribution budget.

attribution rationaleEileen Collins .10; STS-63 and STS-84 crews .22; NASA mission-control, engineering, and operations teams .27; Russian Mir crews and mission teams .19; prior work on the Space Shuttle, Mir, and rendezvous technology .14; unresolved share .08. The shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryCombines the Mir rendezvous of STS-63 and the supplies-and-personnel transfer of STS-84 as one U.S.-Russian cooperative mission family; it does not duplicate M by the two flights or by the precedent of women.

Evidence gapsIndividual operations have not been checked against each flight report; the missions' military/strategic spillovers are not separately inferred.