With Cinco de Mayo this week, we wanted to highlight an inspirational Mexican American who made a great impact to the world. Ellen Ochoa was the first Hispanic woman in space logging nearly 1,000 hours over four missions that spanned from 1999 to 2002.
Ellen was born in Los Angeles in 1958 and raised as the middle child of 5 kids in Costa Mesa to 1st generation Mexican American parents. Though her father, Joseph, was bilingual, the discrimination he faced growing up prompted him to raise the kids only speaking English. Ellen's mother, Roseanne, valued education and decided to pursue a college degree after already having three children because she wanted to set a good example for them.
This upbringing left a big impact on Ellen as she poured herself into school through good times as she excelled in math and spelling bees, and bad, through her parents divorce.
As valedictorian of her class, Ellen was offered a full ride to Stanford University but surprisingly turned it down in order to remain closer to home where she attended San Diego State University instead. She had aspirations of studying engineering however, the lack of women in the program at the time made professors encourage her to pursue a degree in physics instead.
Upon graduating, and still not having much direction on a career, Ellen decided to stay in school and finally took Stanford University up on their full scholarship offer to pursue her masters. With engineering still very much on her heart, she forged ahead as one of the only women in the program to obtain her masters and from there, a doctorate in optics.
In 1983, the first woman, Sally Ride, went into space, inspiring women everywhere to do the same. By the early 80's NASA had begun prioritizing scientific research in space over moon landings and this ignited a keen interest in the program in Ellen and many of her peers. Ellen applied to the NASA Astronaut Training Program upon obtaining her doctorate but was turned down.
This detour didn't deter Ellen from her dreams of space but rather pivoted her to work for Sandia National Laboratories developing optical systems in computers for space travel. In the meantime, unable to stay grounded, she obtained her pilot's license for small planes. Another opportunity came in 1987 to apply to NASA, but sadly Ellen was turned down again.
Unwavering as always, Ellen decided to get strategic this time and found a job in NASA at the Ames Research Center where she was quickly promoted to Chief of the Intelligent Systems Technology Division where she managed a team of 35 scientists. Finally, in 1990, Ellen was accepted into the Astronaut Training Program.
Ellen met her husband Coe Fuller Miles while working at the NASA Ames Research Center, he was also a research scientist. After her first two space missions, Ellen gave birth to her first child, WIlson. She went on another mission a year later, then gave birth to a son before going back up into space one last time in 2002. She took turns with career and family and chose a great partner to create the balance and achieve her dreams.
During her time as an astronaut, Ellen Ochoa worked on optics and software development to better our space program and studied the effects of the sun on Earth's environment and the ozone layer. When she finally hung up her astronaut helmet she worked on improvements from the ground by directing the Johnson Space Center and finally leading the National Science Board where she is today. She is also a big advocate for STEM education and authored a bilingual book, We Are All Scientists. She has inspired a whole new generation to truly shoot for the stars.
What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender, or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire - the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery. -Ellen Ochoa
Ellen's journey may be more public, but all of us touch the lives of others everyday. You can record each of these same questions on the Legacy Lock app to begin preserving your story and sharing it with others today. If you would like to share your story more publicly, we would love to help by featuring you on our blog. To be considered, please email us a summary of your story at info@legacylockapp.com.
Sources: New York Historical Society, PBS
