Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/807066
t m c » p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 7 6 Spotlight Veteran NASA astronaut ELLEN OCHOA, PH.D., has logged nearly 1,000 hours in space on four separate flights. She is the first Hispanic woman to travel to space and, in 2013, she became the first Hispanic and second female director of Johnson Space Center. Earlier this year, NASA announced that Ochoa will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. I feel lucky to have been part, overall, of human space explora- tion. To have been able to participate in the shuttle program and then also the International Space Station program. Q | You have quite the illustrious career. What would you say is your proudest accomplishment? A | I feel lucky to have been part, overall, of human space exploration. To have been able to participate in the shuttle program and then also the International Space Station program. With my four flights, two of them were really focused on scientific research—particularly the problem of ozone depletion and the ozone hole. Then the second two were part of the assembly of the International Space Station. When I see the space station now going strong—we've had people living on board continuously for over 16 years now—to have been part of that is the reward. Q | As a kid, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? A | I didn't have a really good idea. There were a couple years I remem- bered thinking I might be a lawyer. I wasn't one of those kids that figured it out early and said, 'This is absolutely what I want to do.' The Apollo program was going on while I was in elementary and middle school. I was 11 when they landed on the moon. The whole country was watch- ing that, but I can't say at that point I decided I wanted to be an astronaut. There were no woman astronauts. Nobody ever would ask a girl, 'Is that something you want to grow up to do?' It was beyond what you would even think about at that point. It was really later when it was something that I started to think seriously about. Q | Did you face any particular challenges as a woman and a Latina studying STEM in the 1980s and 1990s? A | I really didn't see other people like me as I was going through school for physics and electrical engineering, and then earlier on in my career. That can make you feel like you stand out in a way that you'd prefer not to, at that point. There were only a very few instances when I felt like somebody was trying to discourage me. When I got to NASA, which was in 1988, my first job was at Ames Research Center before I came here to Johnson. First of all, I saw a lot more women. I saw a lot more minorities. At that time, NASA was maybe more welcoming and more focused on a diverse workforce than I had seen prior to that. I've seen that only increase during my years at NASA. Q | At what age or point in your life did becoming an engineer and an astronaut turn into a real goal? A | It was really in graduate school. The first year I was at Stanford was when the space shuttle flew for the first time. Here was this new spacecraft that was quite different than anything that had ever been flown in space. It had larger numbers in the crew and a wider variety of things that the crew was doing. In particular, it was going to support all different kinds of science. That to me was really intriguing because I was really headed toward being a research engineer at that point. The ability to do research but to do it in a completely unique environment was what made it become top of mind. Q | You started your formal NASA training in 1990. Three years later, you went to space. What was that training process like? A | The first year of training you come in as a class. There were 23 astronauts that were selected the year I was selected. A lot of it is originally class- room training; you have lots of work- books to read. Then you start doing single system training. You're in a simulator but you're only worried about one system at a time. You're learning how it operates— what switches you use and what to do when things go wrong. Then you graduate to a full-up trainer where all the systems are sim- ulated with all of their interactions. Your second year of training you get more specific. For example, I started to do robotics training. I did a little bit of spacewalk training, but not very much because by the time I was really going to get into it, I got assigned to a flight and I wasn't going to be doing a spacewalk on that flight. After two years is when I was assigned to my first crew. I spent a year really training with that crew and for that mission. Q | What was the most dicult part about being in space? A | I think it's that you're responsible for a lot of different things as a crew member. You have different respon- sibilities in different phases of flight. You're trying to remember lots of things at one time. It's like cramming for a final or for a whole set of finals. Above: Astronaut Ellen Ochoa simulates a parachute drop into water during emer- gency bailout training in Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Credit: NASA Right: The STS-56 Misson Patch for Ochoa's first mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1993. Credit: NASA