Trujillo << troo HEE yoh >>, Diana (1983-…), is a Colombian American aerospace engineer. Trujillo has worked in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover. She became the first Hispanic immigrant woman accepted into the NASA Academy. The academy is a leadership training program for college students. 
Lady Diana Trujillo Vanegas was born on Feb. 3, 1983, in Cali, Colombia. She graduated from secondary school at Cañaverales International School in 2000. At the age of 17, Trujillo immigrated to Miami, Florida. There, she worked as a housekeeper. She began taking English language classes at Miami Dade College in Florida. Trujillo transferred to the University of Florida to study aerospace engineering. While attending the NASA Academy, she decided to study robots in space operations at the University of Maryland. Trujillo graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in 2007.
Trujillo took a position at NASA after she completed the NASA Academy. She worked on the Constellation crewed spaceflight program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Trujillo worked on sample gathering and storage for the Mars Curiosity rover. Later, she led the team that managed communications between the Curiosity rover and scientists. Trujillo worked on Mars Perseverance Rover’s robotic arm and served as the mission’s flight director in 2021. She hosted the first Spanish language transmission of a planetary landing when the Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2021. NASA named Trujillo a flight director for missions in 2022.
