Katya Echazarreta Makes History As the First Mexican-Born Latina in Space
Katya Echazarreta is making her space debut as the first Mexican-born woman to do so on Blue Origin’s NS-21 flight.
Echazarreta got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when she was selected by Space Humanity as their first participant in their Citizen Astronaut program.
When Echazarreta isn’t preparing herself for the exciting flight (that’s a part of Blue Origin’s New Shephard Program), the electrical engineer co-hosts “Netflix IRL”, a Netflix YouTube series focused on debunking scenes from media using science. She also produces informational content for other female engineers seeking expertise from someone in the field.
Echazarreta moved to the US at 7 years old from her native Mexico, quickly becoming fluent in English. Her interest in space, physics, math, and astronomy later led her to attend the University of California, Los Angeles where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
After completing an internship at NASA, she joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a full-time engineer for five years. Echazarreta is now furthering her education at Johns Hopkins University, where she is working on earning her Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering.
Echazarreta is living proof that perseverance is vital to achieving goals, and serves as an excellent example for other women in doing so. The sky is no longer the limit. We hope space is ready, ‘cause Earth is still trying to handle all this Latina awesomeness.
Check out Echazarreta on social media here.