Ochoa

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Ochoa

Dr Ellen Lauri Ochoa Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Female. Marital Status: Married. Children: One. Birth Date: 10 May 1958. Birth City: Los Angeles. Birth State: California. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Degree: PhD. Group: 1990 NASA Group. Date Selected: 17 January 1990. Number of Flights: 3. Total Time: 30.00 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born May 10, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, but considers La Mesa, California, to be her hometown. Married to Coe Fulmer Miles of Molalla, Oregon. She is a classical flutist and private pilot, and also enjoys volleyball and bicycling. Her mother, Rosanne Ochoa, resides in La Mesa. His parents, Louis and Georgia Zak, reside in Waldport, Oregon.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Grossmont High School, La Mesa, California, in 1975; received a bachelor of science degree in physics from San Diego State University in 1980, a master of science degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1981 and 1985, respectively.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of the Optical Society of America (OSA), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honor societies.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Valedictorian of San Diego State University. Recipient of Stanford Engineering Fellowship and IBM Predoctoral Fellowship. Hispanic Magazine Science Achievement Award. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Medallion of Excellence. Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) Engineering Achievement Award. San Diego State University Alumna of the Year. Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award. NASA Outstanding Leadership Award. Mortar Board National Citation. Albert Baez Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution to Humanity.

EXPERIENCE:

As a doctoral student at Stanford, and later as a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories and NASA Ames Research Center, Dr. Ochoa investigated optical systems for performing information processing. She is a co-inventor on three patents for an optical inspection system, an optical object recognition method, and a method for noise removal in images. As Chief if the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at Ames, she supervised 35 engineers and scientists in the research and development of computational systems for aerospace missions. Dr. Ochoa has presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.

Selected by NASA in January 1990, Dr. Ochoa became an astronaut in July 1991. Her technical assignments to date include flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, crew representative for flight software and computer hardware development, and crew representative for robotics development, testing, and training. A veteran of two space flights, Dr. Ochoa has logged over 484 hours in space. Since returning from STS-66, she has been working on the International Space Station program. She is currently the Assistant for Station to the Chief of the Astronaut Office, directing crew involvement in the development and operation of the Station..

In April 1993, Dr. Ochoa flew as a Mission Specialist on STS-56, carrying ATLAS-2. During this 9-day mission the crew of Discovery conducted atmospheric and solar studies in order to better understand the effect of solar activity on the Earth's climate and environment. Dr. Ochoa used the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) to deploy and capture the Spartan satellite, which studied the solar corona.

Dr. Ochoa was the Payload Commander on the STS-66 Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-3 mission (November 3-14, 1994). ATLAS-3 continues the series of Spacelab flights to study the energy of the Sun during an 11-year solar cycle and to learn how changes in the sun's irradiance affect the Earth's climate and environment. Dr. Ochoa used the RMS to retrieve the CRISTA-SPAS atmospheric research satellite at the end of its 8-day free flight.

FEBRUARY 1997

Flight Log

STS-56 - - 1993 Apr 8 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.26 days. Flight details: STS-56.
Manned five crew. Carried Atlas-2; deployed and retrieved Spartan 201. Payloads: Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS) 2, Shuttle Solar Backscat-ter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) A, Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN) 201 (Solar Wind Generation Experi-ment), Solar Ultraviolet Experiment (SUVE), Commercial Material Dispersion Apparatus (CMIX), Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE), Hand-held, Earth-oriented, Real-time, Cooperative, User-friendly, Location-targeting, and Environmental System (HER-CULES), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II, Space Tissue Loss (STL), Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS), Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM), Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME) III.
STS-66 - - 1994 Nov 3 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 10.94 days. Flight details: STS-66.
Carried Atlas-3 laboratory; deployed and retrieved CRISTA-SPAS. Payloads: Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS) 3, Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmo-sphere (CRISTA)-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS) 1, Experiment of the Sun for Complement-ing the ATLAS Payload for Education (ESCAPE) II, Inter-Mars Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (ITEPC), Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) A, Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE/NIH-R), Protein Crystal Growth (PCG-TES and PCG-STES), Space Tissue Loss (STL/NIH-C-A), Shuttle Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS), Heat Pipe Performance (HPP).
STS-96 - - 1999 May 27 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.80 days. Flight details: STS-96.
Discovery docked at the PMA-2 end of the International Space Station PMA-2/Unity/PMA-1/Zarya stack. The crew transferred equipment from the Spacehab Logistics Double Module in the payload bay to the interior of the station. Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry made a space walk to transfer equipment from the payload bay to the exterior of the station. The ODS/EAL docking/airlock truss carried two TSA (Tool Stowage Assembly) packets with space walk tools. The Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), built by Energia and DASA-Bremen, carried parts of the Strela crane and the US OTD crane as well as the SHOSS box which contains three bags of tools and equipment to be stored on ISS's exterior.
The STS-96 payload bay manifest:
- Bay 1-2: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
- Bay 3-4: Tunnel Adapter S/N 001
- Bay 5-7: Spacehab Tunnel
- Bay 5: Keel Yoke Device (KYD) and Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC)
- Bay 8-12: Spacehab Logistics Double Module
- Bay 13 Port: Adapter Beam (ABA) with IVHM
- Bay 13 Stbd: Adapter Beam (ABA) with SVF/Starshine
- Sill: RMS Arm S/N 303
The STS-96 stack, on mobile launcher 2, was rolled back out to pad 39B after hail damage to the external tank had been repaired. On the launch day, solid rocket booster separation was at 10:51 GMT, main engine cut-off of external tank ET-100 at 10:57 GMT. Discovery was in an initial 74 km x 320 km x 51.6 degree transfer orbit. After the OMS-2 burn at 11:32 GMT, the orbit was 324 km x 341 km x 51.6 degree. Discovery docked with the International Space Station's PMA-2 docking port at 04:24 GMT on May 29. ISS was in a 379 km x 385 km x 51.6 degree orbit. In its configuration at that time it consisted of the PMA-2 docking port, NASA's Unity node, the NASA-owned, Russian-built Zarya module, and the PMA-1 docking unit connecting Unity and Zarya.
On May 30 at 02:56 GMT Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry entered the payload bay of Discovery from the tunnel adapter hatch, and made a 7 hr 55 min space walk, transferring equipment to the exterior of the station.
On May 31 at 01:15 GMT the hatch to Unity was opened and the crew began several days of cargo transfers to the station. Battery units and communications equipment were replaced and sound insulation was added to Zarya. Discovery undocked from ISS at 22:39 GMT on June 3 into a 385 x 399 km x 51.6 degree orbit, leaving the station without a crew aboard. On June 5 the Starshine satellite was ejected from the payload bay. The payload bay doors were closed at around 02:15 GMT on June 6 and the deorbit burn was at 04:54 GMT. Discovery landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 06:02 GMT.

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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