U.S.-NASA: SHUTTLE COMMANDER TAKES GIANT STEP FOR GENDER.

By Molly M. Ginty

NEW YORK, July 12, 2005 (WOMENSENEWS) - Eileen Collins, the first female commander of a space shuttle, prepares for the Discovery launch, other women--engineers, scientists and geologists--say they are also gaining gender-parity in space exploration.

"When I first came to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 30 years ago, nearly all of the women were secretaries," says Lynn Cline, a board member of the Washington-based Women in Aerospace, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. "Now, 22 percent of NASA's senior executives are women. America's space industry still has a long way to go in terms of gender equity, but we are way ahead of the rest of the world in recognizing the contributions women can make."

NASA veteran Collins has 6,280 hours of flight experience, 537 of them in space. A former test pilot and Air Force colonel, she became NASA's first female shuttle pilot in 1995 and its first shuttle commander in 1999.

Discovery's voyage--scheduled for July 13 but postponed for technical difficulties--has been dubbed the "Return to Flight" because it is the first shuttle mission since Columbia erupted in flames in February 2003, downed by a suitcase-sized piece of foam that broke free of the fuel tank during liftoff, ripped a six-inch gash in the left wing and led to the death of the shuttle's seven astronauts during reentry 16 days later.

Collins and her crew are prepared to spend most of their 13-day mission testing and evaluating new safety and repair equipment. The crew will also deliver supplies to the International Space Station, take three spacewalks and try twists, flips and other flight maneuvers not known to have been attempted in space before.

Working behind the scenes will be female scientists such as Sandy Coleman, an engineer who helped redesign the shuttle's external fuel tank, and Stephanie Stilson, who will monitor the Discovery orbiter after the shuttle launches. Progress Since 1962