posted 05-03-2024 05:37 PM               

NASA astronaut and director Ellen Ochoa awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

The first Hispanic woman to launch into space is now the second female astronaut to be awarded the United States' highest honor.

Ellen Ochoa, who later directed NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, was bestowed with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony at the White House on Friday (May 3). Ochoa is the tenth astronaut to receive the medal. ...

Also recognized by Biden was Jane Rigby, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, who serves as the senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.