From Athena to Artemis: Ellen Ochoa

Ellen Ochoa is famously known for being the first Hispanic female to enter into space, along with being the second female director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Ochoa’s career began after earning her degree in physics from San Diego State University and followed with both a master’s and a doctorate degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Her primary focus once she began her work at the NASA Ames Research Center was to investigate optical systems for performing information processing. In 1990, she began her training to become an astronaut and has since completed four missions totaling around 1,000 hours in space. Once she concluded her spaceflight career, she went on to further her scientific developments and created multiple patents for the systems she worked with.