Ellen Ochoa had a dream and achieved it, becoming the first Hispanic-American woman in space.   

But on Wednesday, the former astronaut was solidly on earth – and in Fredericton to be exact.

Ochoa encourages everyone, but especially minorities and young women, to chase their own dreams.

“When I was young, women weren't astronauts,” said the former NASA astronaut. “And so, I don't think I could even have conceived it. But once women started to be selected as astronauts, and that was about half-way through my undergraduate years, that was really when I first started thinking about it.”

On space shuttle Discovery in 1993, Ochoa’s biggest worry in the days leading up to that moment wasn’t about the mission.

“I was most afraid of being in a car accident and not being able to go on the mission because it was something I had dreamed about for so long and there I was so close,” she said.

She went on to fly in space four times, logging nearly 1000 hours in orbit before becoming the director of NASA's Johnson Space Centre.

But while her “ups” were higher than most could ever imagine, her “downs” were incredibly challenging.

“The most difficult part of my whole career is when we lost Columbia and her crew,” Ochoa said. “Of course, I knew all those folks. It was a huge blow for everybody at NASA, so working through that was a very difficult period.”

The space shuttle Columbia disaster killed all seven crew members and Ochoa was in mission control at the time.

She says NASA is now flying safer than ever before.

Her message to the audience in Fredericton was we need to get more women and minorities involved in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

That was something that resonated with many in the crowd, including a Grade 11 student, who arrived in Canada from Spain last year.

“She just had a dream and she did it, and it's something I find, just incredible,” said Leo Rodriguez.

Said Ochoa: “We've got to reach out to everybody and make sure that women and minorities who don't normally choose these careers understand that this is important to them and can be really rewarding and exciting career too.”

Just how exciting?

She says the sky isn't actually the limit -- she's proof there is no limit.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.