One reason Eileen Collins became the first woman Space Shuttle pilot is her heavy background in mathematics and science. She says that traditionally, women have not been encouraged to major in these subjects and feels that when more do, there will be more opportunities opened to them.Although the U.S. Navy accepted women as pilots in 1974, the U.S. Air Force did not until 1976. In 1976, when Collins was a college sophomore, the Air Force announced it would begin training women as pilots. NASA followed suit in 1978, and began accepting women into the shuttle program – just about the time Collins was deciding what to do with her life.