Katya Echazarreta has finally gone where no Mexican-born woman has gone before – to space.
On Sunday (June 5), Echazarreta and five other passengers took the ride of their lives when they were launched more than 62 miles above the Earth’s surface on a Blue Origin rocket. It was the fifth passenger flight funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
While at the edge of space, Echazarreta and the rest of the crew got to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. The look on her face from a video from inside the rocket said it all.
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“Every time I try to sleep, I keep seeing Earth,” Echazarreta wrote on social media in English and Spanish. “The curvature, the colors, the clouds … it’s changed my outlook on life.”
After landing back on Earth, she embraced her husband Nik who was waiting for her return. She thanked him and her entire family for supporting her throughout her life to pursue her dreams.
“It is thanks to you that I am here today,” she wrote on social media. “I hope I have made you all proud.”
Once on the ground, she held the Mexican flag for photo ops with the crew. The other flags represented were the United Kingdom, United States, Brazil and one from Texas and Cornell University.
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Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Katya Echazarreta, who moved to the United States at the age of seven, was selected from a pool of 7,000 applicants by nonprofit organization Space Humanity. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.