{"id":2236,"date":"2017-11-14T14:58:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=2236"},"modified":"2017-11-14T20:41:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T20:41:10","slug":"tstc-hosts-first-american-female-space-shuttle-commander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=2236","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Hosts First American Female Space Shuttle Commander"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 Texas State Technical College\u2019s Aerospace Division recently hosted America\u2019s first female space shuttle commander for a talk to students and faculty members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Col. Eileen Collins was commander in 1999 on the Columbia space shuttle mission that deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. She also commanded NASA\u2019s 2005 Discovery mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen NASA wanted someone who was cool under pressure, they chose her to command the return to flight mission after the Columbia space shuttle disaster (in 2003),\u201d said Carson Pearce, TSTC\u2019s statewide Transportation Division director. \u201cThis kind of insight and perspective gives TSTC students an anchor from which they can realize that someone has dreamed big, achieved that dream, and it motivates our students to do the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Collins shared some facts with the students about space travel, including that space shuttles were about 200 miles above the Earth during missions and the International Space Station is solar powered.<\/span><\/p>\n

Collins told attendees to focus on the missions they are doing, from completing class assignments to helping expand space travel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a revolutionary change in how we think about space travel,\u201d she said. \u201cYou need to use your imagination, thinking of creative ways to do different things. You should be proud of your accomplishments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Collins grew up in New York and received degrees from Corning Community College, Syracuse University, Stanford University and Webster University. She is a U.S. Air Force veteran.<\/span><\/p>\n

Collins also helped present student awards.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never ceased to be amazed at how our students react to having a real live American hero hand them their hard-earned awards,\u201d said Pearce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Receiving awards were:<\/span><\/p>\n

Air Traffic Controller Top Mic Award: Kha Pham<\/span><\/p>\n

Avionics Technology: Thomas Fletcher<\/span><\/p>\n

Aircraft Pilot Training Technology Top Gun Award: Stephanie Hughes<\/span><\/p>\n

Aircraft Dispatch Technology: Eric Neuendorf<\/span><\/p>\n

Aviation Maintenance Technology Top Wrench Award: Cole Nolin<\/span><\/p>\n

Student of the Year for Aerospace: Shane Howard<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 Texas State Technical College\u2019s Aerospace Division recently hosted America\u2019s first female space shuttle commander for a talk to students and faculty members. Col. Eileen Collins was commander in 1999 on the Columbia space shuttle mission that deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. She also commanded NASA\u2019s 2005 Discovery mission. \u201cWhen NASA wanted someone who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2238,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions\/2238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}