Have you ever looked up at the sky
and been curious about what’s up there
in the darkness of space?
I have been curious about this since I was 11 years old,
and bought my first telescope.
So was Ellen Ochoa,
a Mexican American young girl growing up in California.
Ellen Ochoa became the first Latina in space in 1993
when she flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
She grew up in the 1960s.
This was an exciting era of space exploration by the United States.
Astronauts, scientists, and engineers
were working together to land a man on the moon
by the end of 1969,
a goal set by President John F. Kennedy.
In those days, women were not astronauts.
This did not stop Ellen from pursuing her education.
She studied hard and graduated with a PhD
in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
She then became a researcher
for NASA Ames Research Center.
Here she worked on several inventions related to optical devices.
These optical devices would automate space exploration.
Being creative, innovative, and problem-solving
were key to Ellen’s achievements
and to the new knowledge that was discovered due to her work.
Ellen applied to the Astronaut Corps in 1991.
Her focus as an astronaut was to help with the computers
involved in the space shuttle missions.
This includes the software, hardware, and robotics.
She was really good at this,
and really good at working with her team.
She flew four space shuttle missions and logged
almost 1,000 hours in space.
Eventually, Ellen became the director
of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
She was only the second woman,
and the first Latina, to do so.
Here, she was responsible for all
astronaut operations and missions.
What started out as a dream became her life’s work.
As Ellen has said,
“what everyone in the astronaut corps shares . . .
is not gender or ethnic background
but motivation,
perseverance,
and desire . . .
to participate in a voyage of discovery.”
As a young girl,
she watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon.
As part of her work,
she got to help others achieve their childhood dreams too.
José Hernández, a Mexican American migrant worker,
became an astronaut.
He too was inspired by the work of Ellen Ochoa
and others like her.
I too discover new things every day,
and so will you.
Ellen’s story illustrates that
our Latina history is American history.