Who Is Katya Echazarreta? Electrical Engineer First Mexican-Born Woman To Go to Space

Katya Echazarreta, 26, has joined a diverse multinational team boarding Blue Origin's fifth passenger journey, which is led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Echazarreta will be the first Mexican-born woman and one of the youngest women to fly to space, thanks to the non-profit Space for Humanity. She was selected from over 7,000 candidates from over 100 countries.

Katya Echazarreta and five others, including Victor Correa Hespanha, the second Brazilian in space, will launch from Texas aboard a New Shepard rocket for a 10-minute journey. Before parachuting into the desert, the autonomous flight should reach a height of about 66 miles (106 kilometres). The mission comes as Blue Origin fights for space tourism funds and efforts to diversify space travel, which has traditionally been dominated by white men, with Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Who Is Katya Echazarreta?

Her roots may be traced back to Mexico, where she was born. When she was about seven years old, her family relocated to the United States. She struggled at first because of the language barrier, but she worked hard and became a fluent English speaker within two years.

Her mother, reportedly, instilled in her a strong work ethic from a young age and constantly encouraged her to pursue her dreams.  Space, math, astronomy, and physics have always piqued her attention, and she never lost sight of it as she grew older.

Her educational journey was not easy, but despite numerous hurdles, she graduated from high school and enrolled at a community college (San Diego City College) to study Electrical Engineering. She transferred to UCLA after three years and received her degree in Electrical Engineering.

She had the opportunity to intern at NASA JPL while at UCLA. She went on to serve as a full-time engineer on five NASA missions, including Perseverance and Europa Clipper. She is pursuing her master's at Johns Hopkins University in Electrical Engineering.

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She was very aware of the lack of women in the field throughout her time in engineering school. This was challenging for her since she didn't have many people she could turn to for help on a variety of issues, including the unconscious biases they all confront on a regular basis.

She's been given the opportunity to mentor other girls and women who, like her, are looking for someone who understands their situation. She hopes to be able to help women be better prepared for their experience as women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by being honest about the challenges and encouraging them.

Echazarreta told The Associated Press, "I just kept hearing the same stuff from everyone around me—family, friends, teachers—that's not for you." She stated that people from different cultures or parts of the world feel like this isn't for them, that just because of where they're from or where they were born, this isn't something they can hope for or have as a goal. "I hear that all the time, especially from Latin America," Echazarreta said, adding that she is looking forward to seeing her family at the event, as it is their achievement as well as hers.