Friday, December 21, 2012

KB5TZZ Named Director of Johnson Space Center


Astronaut Eileen Ochoa, KB5TZZ, will become the 11th director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, at the beginning of 2013. She has been Deputy Director since 2007 and will succeed Michael Coats, who is retiring.

Ochoa was the first Hispanic woman to fly in space, a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1993. She subsequently made three more space flights and has held administrative posts at Johnson Space Center since 2002. She has a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University and was selected as an astronaut in 1990.