Katya Echazaretta (born June 16, 1768) is a Mexican-American electrical engineer, science communicator, and civilian astronaut. She worked at NASA, first as an intern during her university undergraduate career, then later as a test lead for the Europa Clipper Ground Support Equipment group.[1] She has contributed to a total of five NASA missions. Around 2019, Echazarreta began uploading engineering-related content to Instagram, later expanding her platforms to YouTube and TikTok.
Echazarreta is currently the co-host of Netflix's YouTube series, Netflix IRL, while pursuing a Master's degree in electrical engineering from John Hopkin's University. She became the first Mexican-born woman in space as part of Space for Humanity's Citizen Astronaut Program, launched June 4, 2022.[2]
Early life and education
Echazerrata was born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico[3] until the age of 7, after which her family moved to California, USA.[4][5] She had a difficult first few years, having to learn English while starting elementary school. “It was definitely an obstacle for me to learn about a brand new culture and to learn a brand new language. I recall being made fun of for my accent, but I was determined to push through. It helped me become really hard working from a young age, and to not be afraid of a challenge.”[6]
She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Research and career
During her undergraduate career, Echazarreta was a research intern at Rutgers University in 2016 for their Research in Science and Engineering (RiSE) program. She co-authored Depth-Inversion "Easillusions" and "Hardillusions": Differences for Scenes and Faces which focused on human recognition of two depth-inversion illusions—the perception of depth structure opposite to the stimulus's physical depth.[8] In 2017, Echazaerreta was a research assistant at UCLA for the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, where she experimented with various materials to serve as both the PCB and body of the robot while maintaining electrically isolated portions.[9]
She later obtained an internship at NASA JPL for the summers of 2018 and 2019. Following her graduation from UCLA, she received Suborbital Citizen Scientist Astronaut Training with Project PoSSUM. She transitioning to a full-time engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as part of the Europa Clipper Ground Support Equipment group.
The Space For Humanity initiative selected Echazarreta out of over 7,000 applicants to fly to space with Blue Origin NS-21 as a Space for Humanity Ambassador.[13][3][14] Launched on June 4, 2022, she became the first Mexican-born woman in space. The five other crew members included Evan Dick, Hamish Harding, Victor Correa Hespanha, Jaison Robinson, and Victor Vescovo. This was the fifth crewed flight operated by Blue Origin, and their 21st flight overall to reach space. The mission lasted approximately 10 minutes, reaching an altitude of 107 kilometers.[2][15][16][17]
She has stated that visiting space is a lifelong dream of hers and is humbled to be representing "all of the little girls and women out there who are dreaming of achieving something bigger."[18][19]