海角大神

Growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico, Katya Echazarreta was encouraged to abandon her dreams of traveling to space.

鈥淓veryone around me 鈥� family, friends, teachers 鈥� I just kept hearing the same thing: That鈥檚 not for you,鈥� Ms. Echazarreta told The Associated Press.

Ms. Echazarreta, 26, will prove them wrong Saturday when she joins a diverse international crew boarding the fifth passenger flight by Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos鈥� space travel venture.

She and five others, including Victor Correa Hespanha, the second Brazilian to fly to space, will blast off from Texas atop a New Shepard rocket for a 10-minute flight. The automated flight should reach an altitude of roughly 66 miles before parachuting into the desert.

Ms. Echazarreta, whose flight is sponsored by the nonprofit Space for Humanity, will be the first Mexico-born woman and one of the youngest women to fly to space. She was chosen from more than 7,000 applicants in more than 100 countries.

The flight comes as Blue Origin competes with Elon Musk鈥檚 SpaceX and Richard Branson鈥檚 Virgin Galactic for space tourism dollars and efforts aimed to increase diversity in space travel, which long has been dominated by white men.

Of the more than 600 people who have been to space since Yuri Gagarin鈥檚 pioneering flight in 1961, fewer than 80 have been women and fewer than 40 have been Black, Indigenous, or Latino.

In April, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins arrived at the International Space Station, the first Black woman assigned a long-duration mission there.

Earlier this year, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the agency鈥檚 first-ever equity plan 鈥渢o further identify and remove the barriers that limit opportunity in underserved and underrepresented communities.鈥�

Tabbetha Dobbins, vice president for research and dean of the graduate school at Rowan University, is a member of the American Institute of Physics task force aimed at increasing the representation of Black undergraduate students in physics and astronomy. She told The Associated Press that access to space 鈥� no matter how brief the trip 鈥� matters.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e going beyond the boundaries that most human beings have gone and that鈥檚 a major step,鈥� Dobbins said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so important that everyone sees themselves represented. It鈥檚 hugely impactful.鈥�

But Jordan Bimm, a space historian at the University of Chicago, said it remains to be seen whether the commercial 鈥渟pace for all鈥� ethos becomes reality.

鈥淭rue diversity and access is sustained diversity and access,鈥� Mr. Bimm told The Associated Press. 鈥淚f we want the population of people getting to go to space to actually reflect human diversity on Earth, we need to rethink why we are going and who holds the keys.鈥�

Ms. Echazarreta, who is pursuing a master鈥檚 degree in electrical engineering after a stint at NASA, said people from other cultures or other parts of the world 鈥渇eel like this isn鈥檛 for them, like just because of where they鈥檙e from or where they were born, that this is automatically not something that they can dream or have as a goal.鈥�

鈥淚 hear that all the time, particularly from Latin America,鈥� said Ms. Echazarreta, who is excited for her family to see the launch, considering it their achievement as much as hers.

With this flight, Mexican parents can no longer tell their young daughters they can鈥檛 travel to space.

Instead, she said, they鈥檒l have to respond: 鈥淵ou can do it, too.鈥�

This story was reported by The Associated Press.聽AP writer Anita Snow reported from Phoenix.