Former astronaut to retire as director of Johnson Space Center
First Hispanic woman in space, Ochoa logged more than 1,000 hours in orbit
NASA’s first Hispanic woman to go to space — who later went on to log almost 1,000 hours in orbit and become director of Houston’s Johnson Space Center — is retiring in May.
A center spokeswoman confirmed Friday that Director Ellen Ochoa informed employees earlier that same morning of her impending retirement during an internal meeting.
Ochoa, a veteran astronaut originally from California, is the 11th director of JSC and only the second woman to run NASA’s human space flight hub, which had a budget of $4.5 billion in fiscal year 2017 and employs more than 3,000 people.
In an email to employees, Ochoa said that this year will be her 30th at NASA, and her youngest of two sons turns 18, so it is “a natural point for our family in which to move on to the next phase.”
“It’s a really tough decision to determine when to make that transition; for me, it comes down to my personal situation,” she wrote. “We’ll move to Boise, ID, and I intend to be involved with a number of activities that interest me (including getting back to playing flute, which I once considered for a career!)”
Ochoa, now 59, was not available for comment Friday.
In 1988, Ochoa joined NASA as research engineer at Ames Research Center in California and two years later moved to the Houston center when she was selected as an astronaut.
By 1993, she became the first Hispanic woman to go
to space. She has flown four times, according to NASA’s website, logging almost 1,000 hours in space. Joined hall of fame Ochoa became the center’s deputy director in 2007 and replaced Michael Coats as center director in 2012. Then-NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement at the time that “Ellen’s enthusiasm, experience and leadership, including her superb job as deputy director, make her a terrific successor to Mike as director of JSC.”
Herb Baker, who retired last year, said Ochoa is one of the best center directors he’s worked with in his 42 years at NASA.
“I just think the world of her,” Baker said. “She’s very accessible and she’s very smart — no surprises there — and she cared deeply about the people who worked out there” at Johnson.
Baker also called her brave, saying she made decisions, such as combining the astronaut and mission control offices, that others before her would have been hesitant to do.
Center director “is not easy job, as you might guess. There’s a lot of responsibility there,” Baker added. “The center director is responsible for people’s lives. The decisions they make impact life and death, literally.”
As center director, Ochoa oversees the nation’s astronaut corps, the Orion program and mission operations for the International Space Station, among other things.
Last year, Ochoa was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, and she has received the Distinguished Service Medal, NASA’s highest award. Additionally, five schools in California have been named after her.
The search for her replacement will be conducted by NASA headquarters, but center officials said they do not have a timeline for when that will occur. Ochoa said in her Friday email that more information about center leadership will be announced by acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot “later in the spring.”
‘In good hands’
When Ochoa became center director in 2012, her appointment was announced the same day Coats, her predecessor, announced his retirement.
“We’re fortunate to have a team of excellent leaders here at JSC, so I know I’ll be leaving JSC in good hands,” Ochoa wrote to her employees Friday.
“I have several months to go as Center Director, and you can count on me to continue to be fully committed to our mission and our people here.”