Former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins to deliver High Point University commencement address

High Point, NC (WWAY) — Former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot a space shuttle and command a space mission, will deliver the commencement address to High Point University undergraduate students in 2027.

The university announced Collins will speak during its commencement ceremony May 1, 2027.

Collins, a former U.S. Air Force test pilot, was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1990. In February 1995, she became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle when she flew Discovery on a mission to the Russian Mir space station.

The mission marked the first rendezvous between a U.S. space shuttle and Mir. Collins later piloted Atlantis on a mission that successfully docked with the space station.

In July 1999, Collins became the first woman to command a NASA space mission. During that flight aboard Columbia, the crew deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

“Eileen Collins has done just that while breaking down barriers and writing her name in the history books,” High Point University President Nido Qubein said in announcing Collins as the speaker.

Collins flew four space missions and logged more than 870 hours in space, according to the university. Her final flight came in 2005 as commander of NASA’s first Return to Flight mission following the 2003 Columbia disaster.

She retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 2005 and retired from NASA the following year.

Collins has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, National Aviation Hall of Fame and U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. She published her memoir, “Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars,” in 2021.

Collins will become the second former astronaut to deliver a commencement address at High Point University. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin addressed the university’s graduating class in 2009.