Eileen Collins made history as the first female pilot and commander of a space mission. The four-time space traveler has released a documentary, “Space Woman,” which will premiere Friday in Central Florida.
The 95-minute film, directed by Hannah Berryman, will be shown at Premier Theaters Oaks 10 theaters in Melbourne on Friday. It was released nationwide for the first time on March 20th.
The documentary is based on Collins’ 2023 book, Through the Glass Ceiling and to the Stars, and focuses on Collins’ career through two space shuttle disasters, how the dangers of spaceflight affect those left behind, and the challenges of breaking barriers as a woman.
“As astronauts, we live with danger,” Collins says in the film. “I was willing to take that risk. … I don’t think we know what we can do until it’s tested.”
After she retired in 2005, she had no interest in documenting her career.
“I never wanted to write a book, but when the pandemic hit, I had a lot of free time,” she says, and when the idea of turning it into a film came, she hesitated. “My family had to agree, but once I said yes, I was 100% ready to start working with Hannah.”
Collins’ career at NASA includes four trips to space, including the historic return-to-flight mission in 2005, the first space shuttle flight after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Collins is the first woman to lead a spaceflight, following the first woman to pilot a mission during the first spaceflight in 1995.
She was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1990 and flew on four space shuttle missions and twice on shuttles Columbia, Atlantis, and Discovery before retiring in 2006.
Collins said Berryman and his co-producers “went through all the NASA archives for the four missions I flew from 1995 to 2005, and they had all the videos of my children and my family.”
Berryman, who was not a fan of space before reading Collins’ book, said it took a year to put together the shoot and edit.
“That’s why it’s such an engaging movie, because you get to see the backstory of Eileen’s career and what happened to her family and how they dealt with everything. So I hope it’s an evolving story in that sense,” Berryman said.
One aspect of this was the fact that Collins had a difficult childhood.
“My dad came home drunk and got into a fight with my mom,” Collins says in the documentary. “It was unpredictable. That was the scariest thing. I learned not to pretend to be afraid, so I could control the fear factor that could affect me.”
Berryman said she hopes people who watch the film respect the fact that it doesn’t ignore people’s difficult starts in life.
“You may have many similar problems in your life. You may not have many at first. You may feel sorry for yourself,” she said. “Hopefully, young people will watch this movie and think, ‘Well, maybe we can do that too, and we can overcome all the problems in life. Maybe we can overcome whatever we have and continue to achieve our dreams.'”
Collins, now 69, was born on November 19, 1956 in Elmira, New York. After graduating from community college, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University, joined the Air Force, and eventually graduated from the United States Air Force Test Pilot School. She retired from the Air Force in 2005 with the rank of colonel.
Mr. Collins and Mr. Berryman touted Elmira’s small-town feel. The city has a population of less than 30,000 people, and a screening of the film at Elmira College last month drew a large crowd.
“The place was packed,” Berryman said. “When the movie was over, a guy came up to me and said, ‘That was such a great movie. I cried the whole time.'”
Filming took place in Elmira, Houston, and Florida.
The film features fellow astronauts Mike Fall, who flew with Collins on his first two missions, Cady Coleman on his third mission, and Charlie Camarda on his final flight.
“Hannah selected a crew that, I would say, spoke in a very clear and descriptive manner about their role in the mission,” Collins said.
Collins hopes her story helps send the message that while safety comes first, humanity must take risks.
“Exploration involves risks, including emotional risks,” she says. “Just because something is complicated and difficult doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
