San Antonio’s Eileen Collins, the subject of the new documentary Spacewoman, was in fourth grade when she read a Junior Scholastic magazine article about astronauts in the U.S. Gemini space program.

“I wanted to be just like them. I know there were no women astronauts in those days. It didn't matter. I wanted to be a lady astronaut,” Collins recalls.

Collins discovered her love of flying as a teenager, inspired by the women pilots she read about at the library.“My mother took us to the library all the time,” she says.

“I started checking out books on pilots and flying. I read about pilots like Amelia Earhart and the women that did the Powder Puff Derby in the 1920s. There were women like Louise Thaden and Ruth Law. They're not household names, but I would read about them.”

After high school, Collins wanted to enlist in the Air Force, but her father pushed back. She instead earned a mathematics degree at a New York community college before transferring to Syracuse University. But when the Air Force opened its cockpits to women in 1975, everything changed. Collins was among the first women in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps to be accepted for pilot training.

Eileen Collins attends a U.S. Air Force training session before making history as a pioneering astronaut. Photo courtesy of Haviland Digital Film/Tigerlily Production

From there, the milestones began stacking up. At Oklahoma’s Vance Air Force Base, she was the first in her pilot training class to fly solo. Returning to San Antonio’s Randolph Air Force Base, Collins became the first woman T-38 instructor pilot.

When NASA began training women to become astronauts in the late ‘70s, Collins dove into preparations, impatiently awaiting a shuttle mission. Finally, she was assigned to flight STS-63.

“I was married, but I didn't have any kids yet. So, I was 24/7 studying and working on this flight,” Collins says. “I studied procedures and emergencies. I talked with flight controllers and engineers. Every free minute I had, I felt the need to be the best, not just because I wanted to fly in space, but I was the first woman to do it, and I didn't want to make a mistake.”

Collins finally piloted Discovery on February 3, 1995 — one of only three women to pilot a shuttle over the program's 30-year history. Two years later, she piloted Atlantis in a docking mission with the Russian Mir space station, then was assigned her first shuttle command, leading Columbia's launch on July 23, 1999.

Another Columbia command was planned for 2003 — but on February 1 of that year, Columbia broke apart during reentry, killing all seven crew members.

Collins was eventually assigned the heavy task of commanding the return-to-flight mission aboard Discovery in July 2005. When debris was spotted coming off the fuel tank during liftoff, NASA directed Collins to perform an unprecedented maneuver, rolling Discovery upside down and past the International Space Station so its crew could inspect the shuttle's belly for damage.

San Antonian Eileen Collins recounts her remarkable career in the 'Spacewoman' doc. Photo courtesy of Haviland Digital Film/Tigerlily Production

After retiring from NASA missions in 2006, Collins went on to serve on the USAA board of directors, acted as a NASA advisor, was sought after as a motivational speaker, and joined the ranks of four halls of fame. During the slow days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she began writing the autobiography, Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars, the basis of Spacewoman.

While she still shares the importance of leadership and learning to overcome challenges, her main focus is on the family she built with husband Pat.

“I used to remind myself I had the two best jobs in the world. I was a mom, and I was an astronaut. I was an astronaut first, but being a parent is more important. It's a balance,” Collins says.

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Spacewoman debuts at select theaters on March 20 before being released in San Antonio on April 3.