Katya Echazarreta made historical past as one of many youngest folks to enter house and is able to share her expertise.
AP
She went from working below the glow of the Golden Arches to outer house — and now the primary Mexican-born girl to achieve the cosmos is a star in her personal proper.
Katya Echazarreta, who joined the crew of Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight firm Blue Origin final month, shall be honored by the president of Mexico, The Put up has realized.
The 27-year-old trailblazer is about to share her historic journey throughout an Aug. 2 assembly with Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico Metropolis, in a bid to assist others in her homeland who've scientific aspirations.
“I hope that is simply the primary of many conversations the place my expertise may also help to offer extra sources and create extra significant alternatives for our brilliant college students, scientists, and engineers,” Echazarreta stated of the presidential brainstorming session.
Echazarreta, who immigrated from Guadalajara to San Diego at age 7, additionally made historical past because the youngest American to go to house. An electrical engineer, she utilized to grow to be a citizen astronaut in 2019, competing in opposition to greater than 7,000 candidates from over 100 nations, and was awarded a spot on the June 4th house flight by the nonprofit Area for Humanity.
“Once you’re up there and also you’re trying on the planet, there are some things that actually stand out to you, one in all them being the colour, the best way that it glows a stupendous good blue,” stated Echazarreta, whose TikTok of the journey notched 2.2 million views.
At the same time as a toddler, Echazarreta dreamt of being an astronaut, however it wasn’t at all times a easy launch.
When she was a senior in highschool, her dad and mom’ divorced. And together with her then-single mother the first caretaker of her developmentally-disabled older sister and unable to carry a job, Echazarreta was at a crossroads.
“So throughout that point, I had a selection, I might go off to varsity … or I might keep and assist out my household,” she stated.
She enrolled in San Diego Metropolis Faculty and received a part-time gig at McDonald’s to assist make ends meet.
“I did that for a pair years. I did just about every little thing besides making the meals, each different position, I had. Anytime I wanted a job, I'd return to McDonald’s … even when it was for summer time or a few months,” she stated.
With a 4.0 GPA, she ultimately transferred to UCLA, the place she was awarded sufficient in scholarships to pay for tuition, books and even lease. She graduated in 2019 and is now engaged on her grasp’s at Johns Hopkins College.
When she first realized she was accepted on the Blue Origin flight, which Area for Humanity captured on video, she cried after which stated, “My mother is gonna freak out!”
When it got here time for the launch, Echazarreta was allowed just one visitor. She selected her mother, Liliana Martin.
“She would at all times say, ‘You are able to do it. Go do it,’ even when we stated essentially the most ridiculous issues, like going to house,” she stated, laughing.
Echazarreta was one in all six aboard the Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket for the 90 minute flight, and was allowed to carry simply three kilos value of things resulting from weight constraints within the capsule.
The newlywed, who married her group school sweetheart final spring, introduced her husband’s marriage ceremony ring aboard, together with jewellery from her household, foreign money — each American, and Mexican, to signify her adopted nation and her homeland — and an area suit-wearing teddy bear, a Kennedy Area Middle memento.
“I received that once I was 15. His title is Buzz after Buzz Aldrin,” she stated.
Her future objectives — apart from going to the moon — are to assist these in STEM fields, notably minorities and ladies.
However she’s additionally been reminded that she’s inspiration to boys too.
A mother just lately reached out through Twitter to let Echazarreta know her younger son realized of her house flight and requested: “Are boys allowed to grow to be astronauts too?”
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