San Diego State University graduate astronaut Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina woman to fly in space, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden during a ceremony at the White House.
The La Mesa native was one of 19 people on Friday to be awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions in a variety of areas, from world peace to advancing American prosperity and values. It was one of them.
Other living and deceased figures included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, television pioneer Phil Donahue, and civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who was honored posthumously.
Biden said Ochoa's four flights on the space shuttle “usher in a whole new era of space exploration, improving for every generation what it means to reach for the stars and dream of reaching there.” He said he contributed to.
Ochoa graduated from Grossmont High School in El Cajon in 1975 and then attended SDSU, where he earned a bachelor's degree in physics. She received her master's degree in engineering and her Ph.D. from Stanford University.
She was interested in science from an early age, but didn't always imagine where it would lead her.
“So the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon the summer after I graduated from elementary school,” Ochoa told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2020.
“Of course, the whole country was watching, which was great, but to be honest, I couldn't really think of it as a career,” she said.
Her attitude has changed. In 1985, she applied to join NASA's elite astronaut corps. She did not pass at that time, but in 1990 she passed and a year later she became an astronaut.
She was on her way to fame. In April 1993, Ochoa blasted off into orbit aboard the shuttle Discovery, making her the first Latina woman to travel in space. She also made three shuttle flights, two of which were visits to the International Space Station. Ochoa logged nearly 1,000 hours in space, a feat accomplished by few space explorers.
It wasn't the end of her career. In 2013, she was named director of her NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, home to Mission Control. Ochoa is the center's first Hispanic director, a position she held until her retirement from the space agency in 2018.
