Ellen Ochoa

Ellen Ochoa (born May 10, 1958, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) is an American administrator and former astronaut who was the first Hispanic woman to travel into space (1993). She later served as director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (2013–18).

Ochoa studied electrical engineering at Stanford University, earning a master’s degree (1981) and a doctorate (1985). A specialist in the development of optical systems, she worked as a research engineer at Sandia National Laboratories and at the Ames Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She helped create several systems and methods that were awarded patents, including optical systems for the detection of imperfections in a repeating pattern and for the recognition of objects.

Ochoa was selected by NASA in 1990 to participate in its astronaut program, and she became the first Hispanic female astronaut when she completed her training in 1991. In April 1993 she served as mission specialist aboard the STS-56 mission of the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the first Latina to be launched into space. During this mission, she and the other mission specialists performed various experiments collectively called ATLAS-2 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-2) that studied the Sun and its interaction with Earth’s atmosphere. The crew also released the SPARTAN satellite, which studied the solar wind for two days before it was retrieved. She was part of the STS-66 Atlantis mission in November 1994. STS-66 carried the ATLAS-3, which reflew experiments Ochoa had worked with on her previous flight. Another small satellite, CRISTA-SPAS, was released, which studied Earth’s atmosphere for eight days before being retrieved.

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In May 1999 she was a member of the Discovery STS-96 crew that executed the first docking to the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS then consisted of only two modules, the Russian Zarya and the American Unity. Discovery carried supplies to the ISS to get it ready for astronauts to stay there. It also carried two cranes to attach to the station exterior that would be used in building the rest of the station. Two astronauts, Tamara Jernigan and Daniel Barry, performed a nearly eight-hour space walk to install the cranes while Ochoa assisted them with Discovery’s robotic arm. Ochoa returned to the ISS in April 2002 on the STS-110 mission of the shuttle Atlantis. The first truss, which formed the ISS’s frame, was added; Ochoa and astronaut Daniel Bursch used the station’s robotic arm to lift the truss out of Atlantis’s payload bay and attach it to the station. On her four spaceflights, Ochoa spent more than 40 days in space.

In 2007 Ochoa became deputy director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and six years later she was promoted to director. She was the second woman to hold the post and the first Hispanic. During her tenure she notably oversaw work on the Orion, which was scheduled to travel farther than other crewed spacecraft, allowing for human exploration of such destinations as Mars. Ochoa retired from the Johnson Space Center in 2018 to become vice chair of the National Science Board (NSB), which runs the National Science Foundation. She served as NSB chair in 2020–22.

In 2024 Ochoa received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Pres. Joe Biden.