ms. ochoa was the first hispanic woman to go into space, and her missions included assembly of the international space station. >> ladies and gentlemen, my name is cadet second class amanda mcclain. it is my privilege to welcome you to this session of the 19th annual national character and leadership symposium. it's my pleasure to introduce today's speaker. today's speaker was selected by nasa in 1990 and became an astronaut in july of 1991. she became the first hispanic woman to go into space with a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle discovery in 1993. a veteran of four space flights, she's logged nearly 1,000 hours in space. along with her nasa career, she is also an accomplished pioneer of spacecraft technology. as the chief of intelligent systems at the nasa research center, she supervised 35 engineer scientists and the research and development of computational systems for aerospace missions while laying claim to three patents herself. currently, she's servings a the deputy director of the