by A collectible embroidered patch created to honor the first woman to command a US spaceship features a geometric pattern depicting the glow of her space shuttle rising into the night sky.
The colorful, diamond-shaped shards could also be seen as the figurative “glass ceiling” that Eileen Collins broke through on her way to the stars.
The latest patch from the 59,000-member Space Hipsters Facebook group, each Eileen Collins “Signature Edition” emblem includes the astronaut’s autograph sewn into the design. Sales of the patches benefit Taking Up Space, a non-profit organization that empowers Native American middle school girls to rise above their barriers by sending them to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.
Collins became the second woman to attend the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, to become a NASA astronaut in 1990. She became the first woman to fly as a pilot on a space shuttle mission when she launched on STS-63 in 1995 , and she flew again in the right-hand seat on STS-84 two years later. Both flights visited the Mir space station, the earlier being the first shuttle mission to rendezvous with the Russian outpost and the latter the sixth to dock there.
Then in 1999, Collins became the first woman to command a US spacecraft, leading the STS-93 crew aboard the space shuttle Columbia on a mission to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Six years later, after Columbia was lost on a subsequent mission, Collins led the orbiter’s return to flight, leading the STS-114 crew of the shuttle Discovery.
Related: New film ‘Spacewoman’ to celebrate Eileen Collins, NASA’s 1st female space commander and pilot
In total, Collins logged more than 36 days in space during his four missions. Collins was the 21st US woman to fly into space and the 27th woman in the world. She was the 328th person to leave Earth’s atmosphere and the 321st person to orbit the planet, according to the Association of Space Explorers’ Space Traveler Registry.
Collins wrote her memoir, “Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars,” in 2021. It is now the basis of an upcoming documentary, “Spacewoman.”
Collins’ Signature Edition patch depicts her history-making STS-93 launch and includes stars in its border to represent each of her shuttle missions. Other stars in the emblem design represent the first woman to fly into space, Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova; the first US female astronaut in space, Sally Ride; and the four women who lost their lives in the pursuit of space flight and exploration, Judy Resnik, Christa McAuliffe, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark.
As with previous Signature Edition releases, the Collins patch is made by AB Emblem, the North Carolina-based company that is also a NASA supplier and made the STS-63, STS-84, STS-93 and STS-114 emblems which Collins threw. into space.
There are four versions of the Collins patch available for donation to Taking Up Space:
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Limited edition of 50 “gold” patches with replica Collins signature embroidered in metallic gold thread, shuttle plume in orange thread and individual display cards, each signed by Collins.
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Limited edition of 100 “silver” patches “signed” in silver metallic thread with shuttle plume in blue colors. They also come on numbered cards authorized by Collins.
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Two open edition patches that lack a metallic thread and come without a demo card. Both versions include Collins’ signature in white thread, and are available in blue or orange colorways.
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The patches are priced at $75 for each gold edition, $50 for silver and $15 for the open edition (or $25 for a set of the blue and orange versions). There is a limit of one gold patch and two silver patches per person.
4 inch (10 centimeter) vinyl stickers of the blue and orange open edition designs are available for $3 ($5 for two) as an add-on to patch orders. Details on how to place orders can be found on the Space Hipsters Facebook group.
The Collins patch is the fifth entry in the Space Hipsters’ Signature Edition series. The group previously offered badges celebrating Apollo 13 pilot Fred Haise and shuttle astronauts Mike Mullane, Hoot Gibson and John Herrington.
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