The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

which there would be many leading experts on astronautics
and rocketry. The idea was to give the artist—
already well-known for his cinematic spacecraft designs
and oil paintings of planetary vistas—the biological perspective
needed to show readers how human beings
might safely travel in space. At the conference, held at
the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine, Bonstell was
particularly impressed by the enthusiasm and expertise
of Wernher von Braun and suggested to Collier’s editors
that he was “the man to send our rocket to the Moon.”
A week later, the two men were at the magazine’s New
York offices along with some other great names of midcentury
space science and illustration: Willy Ley, who
had already collaborated with both von Braun and Bonestell;
the astronomer Fred Whipple; the international
law expert Oscar Schachter; the artists Fred Freeman
and Rolf Klep; and the physicist Joseph Kaplan.
Together, these spaceflight visionaries set about depicting
and explaining for the layperson every element of
von Braun’s integrated space program, from the first
piloted rockets to a mission to Mars.
Collins, Eileen Marie (1956–)
The first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission. A
U.S. Air Force colonel, Collins holds various degrees,
including a B.A. in mathematics and economics from
Syracuse University (1978), an M.S. in operations research
from Stanford University (1986), and an M.A. in space
systems management from Webster University (1989).
Selected by NASA in January 1990, she became an astronaut
in July 1991. Collins served as the first female pilot
of the Space Shuttle on mission STS-63 (February 2–11,
1995), during which the Shuttle completed its first dock-
Eileen Collins Commander Eileen Collins consults a checklist
while seated at the flight deck commander’s station aboard
Columbia during STS-93. NASA
colloidal propellant 81
Michael Collins Collins standing between his Apollo 11
crewmates Neil Armstrong (left) and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. NASA
ing with Mir. She piloted the Shuttle again on the joint
American-Russian mission STS-84 (May 15–24, 1997)
before being appointed commander of mission STS-93
(July 22–27, 1999), the highlight of which was the successful
deployment of the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Collins, Michael (1930–)
An American astronaut, born in Rome, Italy. Collins
walked in space during the Gemini 10 mission and circled
the Moon as the Apollo 11 Command Module
pilot. He received a B.S. degree from West Point in 1952,
then entered the Air Force as an experimental flight test
officer at Edwards Air Force Base before being selected
as an astronaut in 1963. He retired from the Air Force as
a major general and left NASA in 1970. After serving
briefly as assistant secretary of state for public affairs, he
became the first director of the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Air and Space Museum (1971–1978),
overseeing its construction and development. He has
written several books, including Carrying the Fire, Liftoff,
and Space Machine, which blend good humor with incisive
journalism. He has recorded, for example, how bad
he felt about losing a camera in space on Gemini 10, and
how he responded when asked what went through his
mind at blastoff: “Well, you think about the fact that
you are at the top of six million parts, all made by the
lowest bidder!”
colloidal propellant
A solid propellant in which the mixture of fuel and oxidizer
is so fine as to form a suspension, or colloid. Alternatively,
a colloidal propellant may have the fuel and
oxidizer atoms in the same molecule.