Flew On Four Shuttle Missions

Veteran astronaut Ellen Ochoa has been named the next deputy director of NASA's Johnson Space Center. Ochoa (below) is a four-time space flier who has served as director of flight crew operations at Johnson. She will succeed Bob Cabana, who was named director of NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

"Ellen has proven her exceptional capabilities many times in space as well as in her many roles on the ground, including most recently her superb management of flight crew operations," said Johnson Director Mike Coats. "We are extremely fortunate to bring her outstanding reputation throughout the agency and her wealth of experience to this new task."

Ochoa will assume duties as deputy director after the next space shuttle mission, STS-120.

Ochoa considers La Mesa, CA her hometown. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from San Diego State University and a master's degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University. She managed the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA before being selected as an astronaut in 1990.

She flew on space shuttle missions STS-56 in 1993, STS-66 in 1994, STS-96 in 1999, and STS-110 in 2002, logging a total of 978 hours in space.

Ochoa became deputy director of flight crew operations at Johnson in December 2002 and director of flight crew operations in September 2006.

FMI: www.nasa.gov