Ellen Ochoa quotes

Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer, astronaut, and former director of the Johnson Space Center. As the first Hispanic woman in space, she has inspired many through her groundbreaking achievements. She continues to advocate for STEM education and diversity in science and engineering fields. Here are 18 of her quotes:

What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire - the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery.

Ellen Ochoa

I realized how important it was to know something about aviation, and it was something I was interested in, so I followed my brother's footsteps and obtained my pilot's license.

Ellen Ochoa

A hallmark of the Latino community is to help one another, if students are interested in a way to give back and help their communities, becoming a teacher is probably one of the very best ways of doing that.

Ellen Ochoa

Usually, girls weren't encouraged to go to college and major in math and science. My high school calculus teacher, Ms. Paz Jensen, made math appealing and motivated me to continue studying it in college.

Ellen Ochoa

Astronauts are very professional and when they're preparing for launch, they prepare for it as the most serious endeavor of our lives.

Ellen Ochoa

I don't recall any interest in science in particular. It came later in college.

Ellen Ochoa

There was a lot of light and a lot of rumbling and vibration, especially the first minute or minute-and-a-half. And then after about two minutes, when the solid rocket boosters separated, the ride got a lot smoother.

Ellen Ochoa

We are involved in technology development for, you know, missions that we hope to plan that would take us to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.

Ellen Ochoa

I was always drawn to teachers who made class interesting. In high school, I enjoyed my American and English literature classes because my teachers, Jeanne Dorsey and Dani Barton, created an environment where interaction was important.

Ellen Ochoa

Being an astronaut is a wonderful career. I feel very privileged. But what I really hope for young people is that they find a career they're passionate about, something that's challenging and worthwhile.

Ellen Ochoa

I'll tell you, being involved in human space flight, it is an emotional endeavor. I think it brings in the highest highs and the lowest lows.

Ellen Ochoa

I don't know of any issues associated with alcohol before flight.

Ellen Ochoa

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.

Ellen Ochoa

It's fun to work the robotic arm in part because it's really a team effort.

Ellen Ochoa

We are constantly emphasizing to people that they need to address anything that affects flight safety or mission success - many pathways to do that. We need to understand better what may be preventing people from using those pathways.

Ellen Ochoa

That's what we want to do here at Johnson Space Center. I think what we have always brought to NASA and brought to the country is trying to push the boundaries, trying to go to the next level.

Ellen Ochoa