NY awards Freedom Medal to Eileen Collins

Eileen Collins

October 27, 1999
Web posted at: 5:07 p.m. EDT (2107 GMT)

(CNN) -- New York has awarded the state's highest honor, the Empire State Freedom Medal, to astronaut Eileen Collins, NASA said Wednesday.

Collins, a New York native and the first woman to command a space shuttle mission, "etched her mark on history by knocking down barriers," said New York Gov. George E. Pataki, who presented the award to Collins.

During his space shuttle Columbia mission in July, Collins and her crew deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the heaviest, largest and most powerful X-ray telescope ever launched into space.

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The Freedom Medal, established in 1997, is given annually to those who best demonstrate the qualities of determination, dignity, fairness and honor that were exemplified by Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball's color barrier, NASA said in a statement.

The medal has an imprint of Jackie Robinson on the front with the words "Freedom, Honor, Liberty." The back reads: "Presented to honor conduct exemplifying the spirit of New York as demonstrated by the life of Jack Roosevelt Robinson."

This year's award also was bestowed posthumously on Brooklyn Dodger Captain Harold Henry "Pee Wee" Reese. Last year's recipient was Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa.

Collins was selected as an astronaut in 1990, and became the first woman to pilot the space Shuttle in 1995. She has flown three missions and logged more than 500 hours in space.

Collins, an Air Force colonel, graduated from Syracuse University in 1978, before joining the Air Force. During her Air Force career, she has worked as an instructor pilot, aircraft commander, and assistant professor of mathematics at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado.