May 10, is reserved to Ellen Ochoa

May 10, is reserved to Ellen Ochoa
Happy birthday Ellen Ochoa! The physicist, engineer, and former astronaut who serves as director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston was born in Los Angeles in 1958. Ochoa earned her bachelor’s in physics from San Diego State University and her PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University. She started out researching optical systems for information processing at Sandia National Laboratories and NASA Ames Research Center.

In 1990 Ochoa was selected as an astronaut by NASA. Three years later, she became the first Hispanic woman to go into space when she served as mission specialist aboard space shuttle Discovery. She logged nearly 1000 hours in low-Earth orbit aboard four missions. Ochoa continued working at Johnson Space Center after leaving the astronaut corps, and in 2013 she assumed the role of director. She was selected earlier this year for entry into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Bio:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/people/orgs/bios/ochoa.html
Photo credit: NASA

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