Ochoa, Ellen, << oh CHOH ah, EHL ehn >> (1958-…), an American astronaut, scientist, and inventor, became the first Hispanic American woman to travel in space. On April 8, 1993, Ochoa began a nine-day mission on the space shuttle Discovery. The other members of the crew were astronauts Kenneth D. Cameron, Kenneth D. Cockrell, C. Michael Foale, and Stephen S. Oswald.
During the mission, Ochoa used a robot arm called the remote manipulator system to release and retrieve a satellite designed to study the sun’s corona, the outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere. The mission was the second flight for the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS). The Discovery crew used ATLAS to measure Earth’s protective ozone layer and determine how it is affected by energy from the sun.
In November 1994, Ochoa made her second shuttle flight. The crew aboard the space shuttle Atlantis used ATLAS to continue research on the sun and its effects on Earth’s climate and environment. Ochoa also used the remote manipulator system to retrieve an atmospheric research satellite.
The astronaut began her third shuttle flight on May 27, 1999. That mission marked the first shuttle docking to the International Space Station. The crew aboard Discovery transferred supplies from the shuttle to the space station.
Ochoa was born on May 10, 1958, in Los Angeles to a Mexican American father and a non-Mexican mother. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from San Diego State University in 1980. She received a master’s degree and doctor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1981 and 1985, respectively. Her work at Stanford led to the development of an optical inspection system, for which she received a patent in 1987 as co-inventor. In 1989, Ochoa co-invented and received a patent for a system that identifies, and can “recognize,” objects. In 1990, she co-invented and received a patent for a system that minimizes distortion in the images taken of an object. These systems help scientists refine images that come from space. Ochoa joined the astronaut program in 1990.
