1st Latina in Space Is Ready for 2nd Trip

Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, an optics expert who recently completed her first space shuttle mission, is already talking about her next flight, although it could be at least a year away.

Ochoa made history for being the first Latina in space as part of the five-member crew aboard flight STS-56 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The orbital atmospheric research mission of the shuttle Discovery was aimed at studying the Earth’s ozone levels and determining the destructiveness of pollutants in the air. The electrical engineer was in charge of a complicated maneuver with a robotic arm during the flight.

But what nearly overwhelmed her was the thrill of rocketing into space, with the thundering engines and the feeling of acceleration against the gravitational pull, which is measured in G-forces, followed by a sense of weightlessness.

“There was a lot of light and a lot of rumbling and vibration, especially the first minute or minute-and-a-half,” she said about the takeoff from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., in early April.

“And then after about two minutes, when the solid rocket boosters separated, the ride got a lot smoother,” she said. “After a few more minutes the G starts to build so that last minute or so you’re in about a 3-G force. And then pretty much instantaneously the (main shuttle) engines just cut off and you’re in zero gravity.

“So it’s a real interesting ride. A lot different than anything else that I’ve ever done before.”

Ochoa’s specialty on the nine-day mission was operating the shuttle’s remote manipulator arm, which was used to deploy and retrieve a Spartan satellite after a two-day study of the sun and the Earth’s system of climates.

She attributes her success as a scientist and astronaut, and part of her skill in operating the robotic arm, to a solid education. “You need to understand a lot about frames of reference, for one thing, which is something you pick up in math classes,” said Ochoa, who is Mexican-American.

Program manager Earl Montoya, a 31-year NASA veteran, said of the maneuver: “She did it very carefully, very slowly, very methodically, with extreme concentration . . . and it was a gem.”

Montoya, 56, a Mexican-American from San Lorenzo, N.M., with two graduate degrees, including one from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as chief coordinator for preflight preparations and in-flight assessment. He was involved extensively in the mid-1970s with the first shuttle test approaches and landings at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.

Ochoa,the third Latino in space, considers herself a career astronaut, able and willing to carry out missions for years to come. When she eventually retires from space flight, she hopes to fill another position in the astronaut corps.

Franklin Chang-Diaz, who was born in Costa Rica, became the first Latino on a space mission during a 1986 shuttle flight. U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Sidney Gutierrez of Albuquerque, N.M., has made two shuttle missions since 1991. His ancestors hailed from Spain centuries ago and eventually settled in what is now New Mexico.

Ochoa, 34, was born in Los Angeles, and her family moved to La Mesa in San Diego County when she was a year old. Ochoa graduated from Grossmont High School in La Mesa before earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from San Diego State University in 1980. She delivered the valedictory speech for her class.

Ochoa earned master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, in 1981 and 1985 respectively. Later she led a team of three dozen researchers in studying advanced computer systems for space exploration. Her work led to three patents.

In an interview last year with the Grossmont High School newspaper, Ochoa admitted feeling somewhat frightened about blasting off into space. “I think if you are not a little scared you don’t understand the risks.”

Ochoa’s mother, Roseanne, who works in newspaper advertising in San Diego, said her daughter excelled in academics during high school. “But I don’t recall any interest in science in particular. It came later . . . in college,” she said.

The elder Ochoa said her daughter changed majors a few times while attending San Diego State before selecting physics. Her college interests at that time included linguistics, English, math and music.

In fact, Ochoa is an accomplished classical flutist who received the Student Soloist Award from Stanford’s Symphony Orchestra while completing graduate work. Ochoa played a flute while orbiting Earth during her shuttle mission.

Ochoa said her mother, a single parent, was the most important mentor in her life. She earned a college degree after giving birth to five children, all of whom have college educations as well.

“That was the most basic reason for my success, because it was only after I was in college that I became interested in going on to graduate school,” Ochoa said. She said that attending graduate school paved the way to the research work that helped get her hired as an astronaut.

Ochoa and her husband, computer scientist Coe Fulmer Miles, live in Houston, where he conducts medical research and she spends much of her time at the Johnson Space Center preparing for future flights. They have no children.

But Ochoa recognizes that youngsters view her as a role model. “I think of it as a good opportunity to let, in particular, school kids know that this job and other interesting jobs in science and engineering are open to anyone who works hard in school and gets a good education and studies math and science. And that it’s not just for a select group of people.”