Katya Echazarreta

Early life and education

Katya Echazarreta spent her early childhood in Guadalajara, Mexico, before moving to California at age eight. Starting at Eastlake Elementary, she faced the challenge of learning English while being teased for her accent, an experience she credits with building her work ethic and fearlessness.

After high school, she spent three years at San Diego City College, where she joined the Society of Women Engineers, mentored for the MESA program, and held a Price Scholarship. She then transferred to UCLA, earning a bachelor’s in electrical engineering in 2019. She is now working toward a master’s 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, co-authoring a paper on depth-inversion illusions. In 2017, she was a research assistant at UCLA, experimenting with materials for robot bodies and PCBs.

She interned at NASA JPL in 2018 and 2019, then became a full-time engineer there for the Europa Clipper Ground Support Equipment group. She received Suborbital Citizen Scientist Astronaut Training with Project PoSSUM. She began her television career as 'Electric Kat' on Mission Unstoppable with Miranda Cosgrove and later co-hosted Netflix IRL.

Spaceflight

Katya Echazarreta was chosen by Space for Humanity to serve as an ambassador on the Blue Origin NS-21 mission. When it launched on June 4, 2022, she made history as the first woman born in Mexico to travel to space.

The flight, which also carried Evan Dick, Hamish Harding, Victor Correa Hespanha, Jaison Robinson, and Victor Vescovo, lasted roughly ten minutes and peaked at 107 kilometers. Echazarreta has addressed Mexico’s Senate and Chamber of Deputies to advocate for more STEM opportunities for women and a stronger national space program. In 2023, she established Fundación Espacial, a nonprofit focused on helping Mexican youth, women, and scientists pursue space and planetary studies.

Did You Know?

• Katya Echazarreta was the first Mexican-born woman in space, launching on Blue Origin NS-21 on June 4, 2022.
• She appeared on the cover of Vogue México y Latinoamérica in October 2022.