My friend's sister by Jim Weingart
From MemoryArchive
Who: Jim Weingart What: First Woman Space Shuttle Pilot & Commander When: 1960's Where: Elmira NY
When I was in second grade one of the friends I made was a fellow named Ed. Ed and I lived within a few blocks of each other and we would walk home from school most days. As we progressed through grammar school, a new friend joined our group; Mike. We were like the 3 musketeers. We hung out during recess, we walked home from school, we spent the summers at each other’s homes, riding bikes, hiking, and swimming. Mike was a middle child and had older and younger siblings. Ed, like me, was the eldest child and while I had four brothers, Ed had two sisters and a baby brother. I don’t recall doing much with Ed’s sisters because he, Mike, and I had more important things to do than fool around with younger sisters. As we got older we got interested in many different things and one of our interests was model rockets. We would build then and launch them not far from were Ed lived. His parents were separated. His mother and her children lived in a public housing complex constructed for returning WW II veterans. The complex backed up to a stream and beyond was an open field and a large hill. This field was our Launch Complex No. 1. We launched all manner of rockets using either Ed’s launching pad or mine. I never realized that one of Ed’s sisters was actually interested in what we were doing. Secretly she wanted to participate but it never occurred to us to include her. As we grew up Ed and I selected different career paths and went on to other things. But for Ed’s sister the interest in rocketry, and flight in general, grew. Eventually she would follow that interest to the U.S. Air Force and become a test pilot when this field was opened for women. She did not stop there, however, but went on further to apply for and be accepted in the astronaut program. In 1995, in a field not unlike the one I used to launch home made rockets in, I stood with my eldest daughter as we watched the Space Shuttle Discovery lift off. It was piloted by Eileen Collins, the younger sister of one of my best friends from grammar school. She was the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle. She also would become the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission and she commanded the Return to Flight mission after the Columbia disaster.
