Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer, former astronaut, and the first Hispanic woman to go to space. She was born in 1958 in Los Angeles, California and graduated from San Diego State University with a doctorate in electrical engineering. Ochoa became an astronaut in 1991 and flew four space shuttle missions between 1993 and 2002. She has logged nearly 1, 000 hours in space and is currently the director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.