Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to go to Space

 

POSTED ON Mar 08, 2019

 

For International Women’s Day 2019, we post an illustration of Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to go to space. The sketch, which was done by Carly Wilkins of the U.S. Department of Energy was first released during Women’s History Month 2016 when Energy.gov highlighted the contributions to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) made by women of color.

Did you know Ellen Ochoa applied to be an astronaut three times before being accepted by NASA in 1990? In between applications, she earned a pilot’s license and continued her research in optics.

• Ochoa was a researcher at the Energy department’s Sandia National Lab and the NASA Ames Research Center before she became an astronaut.
• In 1993,  Ochoa boosted to orbit with the space shuttle Discovery in 1993. All told, she spent a total of almost 1,000 hours in Space aboard four different missions.
• She is a co-inventor on three patents for optical systems and is a former director of the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
• While studying for her doctorate in electrical engineering, she received the student soloist award from the Stanford Symphony Orchestra.
• There are four schools named after Ellen Ochoa — two in her home state of California, one in Texas and one in Washington.

Source: Five Fast Facts about Astronaut Ellen Ochoa