A collectible embroidered patch created to honor the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft features a geometric pattern representing the glow of her space shuttle lifting off 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 group on Facebook, each Eileen Collins "Signature Edition" emblem includes the astronaut's autograph sewn into the design. Sales of the patches benefit Taking Up Space, a nonprofit organization empowering middle-school-age Native American girls to soar beyond their barriers by sending them to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.
The second woman to attend the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Collins was selected to become a NASA astronaut in 1990. She was the first woman to fly as the pilot on a space shuttle mission when she launched on STS-63 in 1995, and she flew again in the right-side seat on STS-84 two years later. Both flights visited the space station Mir, with 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 U.S. spacecraft, leading the STS-93 crew aboard space shuttle Columbia on a mission to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Six years later, after the loss of Columbia on a subsequent mission, Collins led the orbiter fleet's return to flight, commanding the STS-114 crew on shuttle Discovery.
Related: New film 'Spacewoman' to celebrate NASA's Eileen Collins, 1st woman space commander and pilot
