Plot Summary

An average student in average small-town America, inspired by the astronauts she saw on TV, Eileen Collins nurtured a secret dream to fly to space herself. In the 1970's the US military selected women pilots for the first time, and Eileen became one of those daredevil test pilots. Proving herself in this man's world, she then inspired thousands of others when she became NASA's first female pilot of a space shuttle. SPACEWOMAN will show Eileen's experience of the epic violence of a space shuttle launch, a historic docking with a Russian space station, and follow the dramatic tale of one of the most perilous and important missions in the history of space travel. It also tells the very human story of a family, examining the tough background that made Eileen a woman who could manage fear and take command, and as a mother, guide the journey of her own family alongside her extraordinary and risky endeavors.