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Ellen Ochoa in a NASA T-38 Jet Trainer

Ellen Ochoa
Soon after being named an astronaut candidate, Class of 1990, Ellen Ochoa is about to take a familiarization ride in a NASA T-38 jet trainer.

Soon after being named an astronaut candidate, class of 1990, Ellen Ochoa takes familiarization ride in a NASA T-38 jet trainer.

Dr. Ellen Ochoa, a veteran astronaut, was the 11th director of the Johnson Space Center. She was JSC’s first Hispanic director, and its second female director. Her previous management roles include Deputy Center Director and Director of Flight Crew Operations.

Ochoa joined NASA in 1988 as a research engineer at Ames Research Center and moved to Johnson Space Center in 1990 when she was selected as an astronaut. She became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on the nine-day STS-56 mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1993. She has flown in space four times, including STS-66, STS-96 and STS-110, logging nearly 1,000 hours in orbit.

Image credit: NASA