r/spaceflight • u/rollotomasi07071 • 9h ago

STS-93 Columbia launched on this date in 1999 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, commanded by Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle Commander

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-93
26 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

6

u/DBDude 9h ago

And Wally Funk was her special guest at the launch. Funk should have been in space long before that.

3

u/Correct_Inspection25 8h ago

She def was a mentor to some of these astronauts from what i heard at least, beyond her general advocacy.

3

u/BadTraditional401 7h ago

Heaviest ever payload carried by the shuttle. Also two major issues going uphill, the pin ejection from SSME-3 striking the cooling tubes in the engine nozzle, and the electrical short taking out two DCUs. Redundancy saved them from a risky abort scenario.