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Ellen Ochoa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since November 2006. |
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| Astronaut | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Born | May 10, 1958 Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation1 | Engineer |
| Space time | 40d 19h 37m |
| Selection | 1990 NASA Group |
| Mission(s) | {{{mission}}} |
| Mission insignia |     |
| 1 previous or current | |
Ellen Lauri Ochoa (born 1958) is a former astronaut and current director of flight crew operations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Ochoa became the first U.S. Hispanic in space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1993. The astronauts were studying the earth's ozone layer. A pioneer of spacecraft technology, she patented an optical system to detect defects in a repeating pattern. At the NASA Ames Research Center, she led a research group working primarily on optical systems for automated space exploration.
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Ellen Ochoa was born on May 10, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, but considers La Mesa, California to be her hometown. She graduated from Grossmont High School, in 1975 as valedictorian; and doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1981 and 1985, respectively. Her parents got divorced when she was in high school and so she lived with her mother, three brothers and one sister.
As a doctoral student at Stanford, and later as a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories and NASA Ames Research Center, Dr. Ochoa investigated optical system for performing information processing.
She is a co-inventor on three patents for an optical inspection system, an optical object recognition method, and a method for noise removal in images. As Chief of the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at Ames, she supervised 35 engineers scientists in the research and development of computational systems for aerospace missions. Dr. Ochoa has presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.
Dr. Ochoa was selected by NASA in January 1990 and became an astronaut in July 1991. Her technical assignments in the Astronaut Office includes serving as the crew representative for flight software, computer hardware and robotics, Assistant for Space Station to the Chief of the Astronaut Office, lead spacecraft communicator(CAPCOM) in Mission Control, and Acting Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office. She is currently Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations, helping to manage and direct the Astronaut Office and Aircraft Operations, and is not planning to go on any more missions. A veteran of four Space flights, Dr. Ochoa has logged over 978 hours in space. She was a mission specialist on STS-56, was payload commander on STS-66, and was mission specialist and flight engineer on STS-96 and STS-110.
On June 9, 2006, Dr. Ochoa attended the naming ceremony for a school named after her. Ellen Ochoa Learning Center is a Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade school in Cudahy, California, United States, which is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Students and staff at the school chose the name because Ochoa is an inspirational role model for students. Dr. Ochoa toured the campus and talked to students about her experiences with NASA and the importance of education. Students treated her to an assembly that included speakers, dances and songs.
Astronaut Bio: Ellen Ochoa. NASA (2006-10). Retrieved on January 25, 2007.