The first Hispanic woman to launch into space is now the second female astronaut to be awarded the United States' highest honor. Ellen Ochoa, who later directed NASA's Johnson Space Center in ...

La Mesa native Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to travel ... research at Ames Research Center before being chosen to be an astronaut in 1990. Also recognized by Biden was Jane Rigby, an ...

Last August, at a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA introduced its eight newest astronaut candidates. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and center director Ellen Ochoa—both ...