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Ellen Ochoa Suits Up

STS-110 Water Survival Training in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL). View of astronaut Ellen Ochoa, Flight Engineer (FE) dons a Launch and Entry Suit (LES).
Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, STS-110 flight engineer, wears a launch and entry suit as part of water survival training in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in 2001.

Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, STS-110 flight engineer, wears a launch and entry suit as part of water survival training in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at the Sonny Carter Training Facility near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in 2001. STS-110 was the 13th shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station (ISS). The mission included 4 spacewalks, furthering the construction of the ISS.

Dr. Ochoa was selected by NASA in 1990 as the first female Hispanic astronaut and became the first Hispanic astronaut to fly to the International Space Station. Ochoa was named as the deputy director of the agency’s Johnson Space Center’s in 2007, then as the Center’s first Hispanic director and its second female director in 2013. She served in that position until her retirement from NASA in 2018.

Throughout National Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re celebrating the contributions of the brilliant Hispanic people of NASA.

Image credit: NASA