This story is about Ellen Ochoa.

The first Hispanic female to go into space. Throughout her career, she received a lot of awards and school's opened under her name.

My name is, Ellen Ochoa. I was born on May 10, 1958 in Los Angeles, California. Not long after, my family moved to La Mesa, California. My father was Joseph Ochoa who was a retail manager and my mom was Roseanne Ochoa, she was a homemaker.

My parents got a divorced when I was in junior high. My dad left us, so my mom took care of my four siblings and I. My mom stressed to us that education was important. I attend Grossmont High School in San Diego, California, where I graduated valedictorian.

After high school, I attended San Diego State University where I earned my Bachelor’s degree in physics. I then attended Stanford University in California where I earned my Master’s and Doctorate degrees in electrical engineering.

After I graduated with my Doctoral degree I did research at Sandia National Laboratories and NASA Ames Research Center. There I investigated optical systems for performing information processing.

After being rejected by NASA three times, I was accepted into the program in 1990. I started my training with the first woman to be named a pilot candidate, Eileen Collins. I finished my training in 1991.

Two years after I finished my training, I was selected for a mission that took place in April of 1993. My first mission took a total of nine days.

When I'm not in space, I like to play music and play sports. As a matter of fact, in 1983 I was the Student Soloist Award Winner in the Stanford Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout my astronaut career, I went to space a total of four times. I was a mission specialist on STS-56 (1993), the Payload Commander on STS-66 (1994), a mission specialist and flight engineer on STS-96 (1999) and STS-110 (2002)

In 1990, while I started my training for NASA, I also married my husband that year, Coe Fulmer Miles, who was a computer research engineer. We had two kids together.

After I retired from being an astronaut, I still worked for NASA. In 2007, I became deputy director at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. A few years later, in 2013, I became the director of the entire Space Center.

In February 27, 2015, I was recognized with the National Space Grant Distinguished Service Award by the Johnson Space Center director.I was recognized for my hard dedication to the space center.

On May 22, 2017, Michael Foale and I were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. We went into space together on my first mission. He was very helpful and gave me tips on what to expect in space.