Mexican-born engineer pushing for more diversity in space

By ALEX SANZ and ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — A 26-year-old electrical and hardware engineer will become the first Mexican-born woman in space when she joins a diverse international crew for a 10-minute flight launched by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Katya Echazarreta is the first passenger sponsored by the nonprofit Space for Humanity and will become one of the youngest women to fly to space. Another crew member on the flight is civil production engineer Victor Correa Hespanha. He will become the second Brazilian to fly to space. The flight comes as Blue Origin competes with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic for space tourism dollars and efforts aimed to increase diversity in space travel, which long has been dominated by white men.