Plus, how Collins personally managed the risk of flying after two Shuttle accidents.
| | | In this episode of the Space Minds podcast, host David Ariosto speaks with Eileen Collins, retired NASA astronaut, Air Force colonel and the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle and to command a Space Shuttle mission.
Collins is the subject of a new documentary, "Spacewoman," directed by Hannah Berryman, which is based on Eileen's book "Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars." It hits select theaters March 20.
They discuss life lessons that lent themselves to a career in space and the military, the public and private challenges of leading a crew on the Space Shuttle, and the roles that humans versus artificial intelligence ought to play during space missions.
| | | | | | | David Ariosto: I want to fast forward a little bit to 2005, which I believe was your last mission, which was the return to flight mission after Columbia.
Eileen Collins: That's correct. When the accident happened, my crew was five weeks from launch.
Ariosto: So you have this unique distinction of flying missions after Challenger and flying after Columbia. ... Astronauts often say they understand the risks but fly anyway. But how do you personally define acceptable risk in spaceflight, particularly when you're coming on the heels just less than a decade after Challenger on your first flight, and then two years after Columbia, knowing that you have a family and that this is just not about you?
Collins: So for an astronaut making the decision to fly, I put it in two categories. The first one is analytical, and the Shuttle program used something called probabilistic risk management. ... It's very analytical. When you don't have a lot of data and you have make a decision, there are still analytical ways that you can come up with a probability of this event happening. I remember the probability of us getting hit by a piece of orbital debris on that mission was one in 260. That's what the numbers showed us.
That's the first part, and the gut feeling comes from talking with program management people. Talking with my flight directors ... And going around to factories and just getting to know people. That human side of it, maybe you can try to make that analytical; I have tried to do that by writing down pros and cons on a piece of paper.
Ariosto: There has to be a moment, though, when you realize ... in quarantine that you realize it's not gonna be a scrub, and then it's "go."
Collins: "Charge." For me it's "charge." Let's go. We're going into the big game, it's the Super Bowl, I'm the coach or the quarterback or whatever I am ... It's "charge." Let's go.
Watch the full episode at SpaceNews.com.
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