In Honor Of The Moon Landing 40th Anniversary: Latinos In Space!

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, we thought we’d take a look at Latinooooossss innnnnn spppaaaaaaaaaaa (huff huff) ccccceeeeeeeee.

Many people in the Latino community aren’t aware that we too have breached the solid bonds of Earth and found out how hard it is to pee in zero gravity. It seems that not every astronaut has been some white dude named Gus, Buzz, or Neil. There was also Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ellen Ochoa, and Carlos Noriega.

Franklin Chang-Diaz became the first Latino in space in 1986, when he participated in a mission aboard the space shuttle, (or chuttle) Columbia. Franklin was born in Costa Rica of Chinese and Costa Rican descent. Like most kids of the space generation of the early 1960’s, Franklin’s dream was to become an astronaut, though unlike many kids in the U.S. he had the added disadvantage of not speaking English and being a Latino in a field dominated by good ol’ boys. When he saw the moon landing in 1969 Franklin became even more determined that if we humans could achieve that feat he could achieve anything,

It was a reaffirmation of something that at the time was kind of still elusive, because number one, I was from another country, I was Hispanic I was just beginning to find my way in the United States, all of the astronauts were sort of the standard, all American looking guys.

He moved to Connecticut and worked his ass off, (which is good as a big Latino booty might create too much drag on takeoff) went to college and earning a PhD. in physics. He has flown in 7 flights including the first to the MIR space station before it was decommissioned in 2001.

The next Latino to be shot into space was Ellen Ochoa, a California born Mexican-American who has a PhD. in electrical engineering from Stanford. Ellen has been in space 4 times and specializes in operating the robotic arm on the space shuttle (awesome!) She is a pragmatic woman, who seems to be very down to Earth (no pun intended.) Ellen views her space travel as just part of the job, albeit a cool one. She says of seeing the Earth from space, “It’s the one thing we all miss when we return to Earth. Even though we can bring back wonderful pictures and movies it is never quite like being up there personally.”

The last of our Latino astronautas is Carlos Noriega, who is a bad ass Marine pilot turned astronaut, which pretty much means he has balls of solid titanium (like the space shuttle’s hull.) Carlos is no dummy though, as he has a BS in computer science and has crazy tech skills. He is one of the people actually putting the international space station together, (just like on Earth, if you want something built right, hire a Latino work crew.) Carlos has been up in space twice and will probably be going up again soon.

There are currently 13 Latino astronauts on the active list for future space launch. It seems once one of us kicks the door open a bunch of others sneak in. Though America hasn’t been back to the moon in over 30 years, it would be awesome if the next time they do, a Latino is on board. Un pequeño paso para un hombre, un salto para la humanidad.

The Sky’s The Limit: For Latinos in NASA [Latino Leaders]