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'Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz, Sc.D.' (born 5 April 1950) is a Costa Rican-American physicist and former NASA astronaut. Before retiring from NASA in August 2005, he participated in seven NASA space shuttle missions. He is one of the first American citizens with Latin American descent to go into outer-space.

Contents

Education

NASA career

Current Life

See also

External links

Education

Chang-Diaz was born in San José, Costa Rica and moved to the United States to finish his high school education. He earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1973, and a Sc.D. in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977. For his graduate research at MIT, Chang-Diaz worked in the field of fusion technology and plasma-based rocket propulsion.

NASA career

Chang-Diaz was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1980 and first flew aboard STS-61-C in 1986. Subsequent missions include STS-34 (1989), STS-46 (1992), STS-60 (1994), STS-75 (1996), STS-91 (1998), and STS-111 (2002). During STS-111, he performed three EVAs with Philippe Perrin as part of the construction of the International Space Station. He was also director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center from 1993 to 2005. Chang-Diaz retired from NASA in 2005.

Current Life

He is currently testing a prototype of the VASIMR rocket in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Chang-Diaz is also an adjunct professor of physics at Rice University and at the University of Houston.
Due to his career and scientific success, he has been decorated multiple times in Costa Rica and named a 'Benemerito de la Patria' ('National Hero'); the Costa Rican National Center of High Technology, among other institutions, is named after him.
His daughter, Sonia Chang-Diaz, recently ran for the office of State Senator from Massachusetts in 2006.
Because of his quarter Chinese ethnicity, he is known by his Chinese name (張福林) in most Chinese media.

See also

★ Space exploration

★ Asian Latin American

External links

★ Ad Astra Rocket

★ Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory

★ Centro Nacional de Alta Tecnología Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz (CeNAT)

★ NASA Biography

★ Spacefacts biography of Franklin Chang-Diaz