Ellen Ochoa
| Ellen Ochoa | |
|---|---|
 |
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| NASA astronaut | |
| Nationality | American |
| Status | Retired |
| Born |
May 10, 1958 Los Angeles, California |
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Time in space
|
40d 19h 36m |
| Selection | 1990 NASA Group |
| Missions | STS-56, STS-66, STS-96, STS-110 |
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Mission insignia
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Ellen Ochoa (born May 10, 1958) is an American engineer, former astronaut, and the current Director of the Johnson Space Center. Ochoa became director of the center upon retirement of the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012. In 1993 Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in the world to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery.
Ochoa was born in Los Angeles, California, but considers La Mesa, California her hometown. Ochoa graduated from Grossmont High School in El Cajon in 1975. Her parents got divorced when she was in high school and so she lived with her mother, three brothers and one sister. She received a bachelor of science degree in physics from San Diego State University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1980, before earning a master of science degree and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1981 and 1985, respectively. She is married to Coe Fulmer Miles, with whom she has two children. Ochoa is a classical flutist and played with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, receiving the Student Soloist Award.
As a doctoral student at Stanford, and later as a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories and the NASA Ames Research Center, Ochoa investigated optical systems for performing information processing. At the NASA Ames Research Center, she led a research group working primarily on optical systems for automated space exploration. She patented an optical system to detect defects in a repeating pattern and 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 the 35 engineers scientists in the research and development of computational systems for aerospace missions. Ochoa has presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.
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