Katya Echazarreta was student of the year at San Diego City College in 2016
A San Diego City College alumna who has dreamed of exploring the cosmos since she was a child learned Monday that her wish will come true during a mission in which she will become the first Mexico-born woman to travel in space.
Katya Echazarreta was one of six people chosen to participate in a sub-orbital flight that will be staged by Blue Origin.
Blue Origin officials say the 26 year-old Echazarreta, who has considerable experience as an electrical engineer, will serve as a citizen science astronaut on behalf of Space for Humanity.
“The news is out. I’m going to space,” she said Monday during a brief, giddy video on TikTok.
The date of the mission has yet to be set.
The crew will travel aboard New Shepard.
As her many followers on TikTok and YouTube know, Echazarreta was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and later moved to San Diego, where she attended San Diego City College. She was named student of the year there in 2016. Echazarreta transferred to UCLA and earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. She is finishing a Master’s program in engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Her resume also includes work as an electrical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where she helped support such missions as the Mars Perseverance Rover, and the upcoming Europa Clipper trip to Jupiter.
She is better known to many as the host of the YouTube series Netflix IRL and as Electric Kat on Mission Unstoppable.
Echazarreta also promotes STEM education, especially on TikTok, where she subtly cheers people on by showing herself working through engineering problems. In one post, she sat at a work table and said, “Engineering can be really frustrating at times. It can feel like no matter you love the field, sometimes it just doesn’t love you back.
“But I’ve realized something recently. I’ve started to love those moments where nothing seems to be working, because I know what comes next. The moment where I finally figure it out.”
Blue Origin's 24th Mission: Success with New Shepard
New Shepard’s booster lands on the pad during NS-24 (December 19, 2023). Blue Origin
Blue Origin achieves success with its 24th New Shepard flight, carrying 33 payloads from NASA, academia, and commercial sectors. The mission marks a total of 150 payloads flown on New Shepard, showcasing its reliability and versatility.
A remarkable addition to the flight was the inclusion of 38,000 postcards…
Uncrewed New Shepard mission experiences in-flight abort
Uncrewed New Shepard mission experiences in-flight abort
Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule shortly after its abort sequence was triggered during the NS-23 mission on Sept. 12, 2022. This was an uncrewed mission. Credit: Blue Origin
In a reminder that rocket launches are not routine events, Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket system suffered an anomaly during its 23rd flight.
(more…)
Science News Roundup: Crackling or desolate?: AI trained to hear coral's sounds of life; Chinese astronauts blast off to space station as construction enters high gear and more
Science News Roundup: Crackling or desolate?: AI trained to hear coral’s sounds of life; Chinese astronauts blast off to space station as construction enters high gear and more
Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
Crackling or desolate?: AI trained to hear coral’s sounds of life
When a team of scientists listened to an audio clip recorded underwater off islands in central Indonesia, they heard what sounded like a campfire. Instead, it was a coral reef, teeming with life, according to a study scientists from British and Indonesian universities…
On May 18, Blue Origin announced via Twitter that it would delay the NS-21 launch as “During our final vehicle check-outs, we observed one of New Shepard's back-up systems was not meeting our expectations for performance”
NS-21 will carry 6 people on a short journey to suborbital space, Evan Dick, Katya Echazarreta, Hamish Harding, Victor Correa Hespanha, Jaison Robinson and Victor Vescovo are the Blue Origin astronauts announced last May 9.
The mission will include several firsts times as. Echazarreta will become the first person born in Mexico to reach Space, and Dick will be the first person to fly Blue Origin twice as he was a member of the NS-19 crew, which flew on December 11, 2021.
Blue Origin New Shepard flies six people to space on NS-22 mission
Blue Origin New Shepard flies six people to space on NS-22 mission
File photo of a previous New Shepard rocket launch. Credit: Blue Origin
Blue Origin’s NS-22 crewed suborbital New Shepard mission successfully took to the skies from the company’s West Texas launch site. (more…)
NYX SHEPARD AND KAIDAN ALENKO
MASS EFFECT 1 - SAME GENDER ROMANCE MOD
"Everything will be fine, Shepard. You'll figure it out."
"If you get me to melt now, when will I figure out how to save the galaxy?"