Katya Echazaretta (born June 16, 1995) is a Mexican-American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, science communicator, and

space tourist Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...

. She worked at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

, first as an intern during her university undergraduate career, then later as a test lead for the Europa Clipper Ground Support Equipment group. She has contributed to a total of five NASA missions. Around 2019, Echazarreta began uploading engineering-related content to

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

, later expanding her platforms to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

. Echazarreta is currently the co-host of

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

's YouTube series, ''Netflix IRL'', while pursuing a Master's degree in electrical engineering from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. She became the first Mexican-born woman in space as part of Space for Humanity's Citizen Astronaut Program, launched June 4, 2022.

Early life and education

Echazerrata was born and raised in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

, Mexico until the age of 7, after which her family moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, USA. 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.” After graduating from Eastlake High School, she attended

San Diego City College San Diego City College (City College or City) is a public community college in San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Community College District and the California Community College System. San Diego City College is accredited by t ...

for three years, where she was a part of the

Society of Women Engineers The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international not-for-profit educational and service organization. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in the United States, the Society of Women Engineers is a major advocate for women in engineering and ...

, a mentor for the

Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) is an academic preparation program for pre-college, community college and university-level students. Established in 1970 in California, the program provides academic support to students from edu ...

(MESA) program, and was a Price Scholarship Scholar. Echazarreta transferred to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 2016, completing her Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 2019. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in electrical and computer engineering at

Research and career

During her undergraduate career, Echazarreta was a research intern at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

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. In 2017, Echazaerreta was a research assistant at UCLA for the

Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, informally known as UCLA Samueli School of Engineering or UCLA Engineering, is the school of engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It opened as the Colle ...

, where she experimented with various materials to serve as both the PCB and body of the robot while maintaining electrically isolated portions. 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 A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

. She transitioning to a full-time engineer at

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

as part of the Europa Clipper Ground Support Equipment group. Echazarreta began her television career as "Electric Kat" on a segment of ''

Mission Unstoppable with Miranda Cosgrove CBS Dream Team (suffixed with ...It's Epic! before October 3, 2020) is an American programming block that is programmed by Hearst Media Production Group (formerly Litton Entertainment), and airs weekend mornings on CBS under a time-lease agreeme ...

.'' She is continuing with the show into its fourth season. She is now also a co-host of Netflix's YouTube series, '' Netflix IRL''.

Spaceflight

The

Space For Humanity Space For Humanity, also known as S4H, is a non-profit organization with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 2017 by Dylan Taylor, Space for Humanity is organizing a sponsored Citizen Astronaut Program, where leaders can apply for an oppo ...

initiative selected Echazarreta out of over 7,000 applicants to fly to space with

Blue Origin NS-21 Blue Origin NS-21 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which launched on 4 June 2022 using the New Shepard rocket. It was Blue Origin's fifth crewed flight, and twenty-first overall to reach space. The mission was ...

as a Space for Humanity Ambassador. 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 Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...

, and their 21st flight overall to reach space. The mission lasted approximately 10 minutes, reaching an altitude of 107 kilometers. 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."

Modeling

Katya appeared on the October 2022

Vogue Mexico Vogue may refer to: Business * Vogue (magazine), ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British Vogue, British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashi ...

cover. She presented a talk at Vogue Mexico's Forces of Fashion, discussing her experience with fashion not being fully welcome in STEM and how she is working to break down those stereotypes. She also covered the

Glamour Glamour may refer to: Arts Film * ''Glamour'' (1931 film), a British film * ''Glamour'' (1934 film), an American film * ''Glamour'' (2000 film), a Hungarian film Writing * ''Glamour'' (magazine), a magazine for women * ''The Glamour ...

Mexico and Latin America Women of the Year edition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Echazarreta, Katya 1995 births Living people Women electrical engineers American electrical engineers Johns Hopkins University alumni Women astronauts American astronauts NASA people American YouTubers American TikTokers People from Guadalajara, Jalisco UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni People from San Diego Mexican emigrants to the United States New Shepard passengers Educational and science YouTubers San Diego City College alumni Hispanic and Latino American aviators