Franklin Chang-Diaz

Infobox Astronaut
name =Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz


type =NASA Astronaut
nationality =Costa Rican / American
status =Retired
date_birth =April 5, 1950
place_birth =San José, Costa Rica
occupation =Physicist
selection =1980 NASA Group
time =66d 18h 16m
mission =STS-61-C, STS-34, STS-46, STS-60, STS-75, STS-91, STS-111
insignia =|

Franklin Ramón Chang-Díaz (zh-s|s=张福林, born 5 April 1950) is a Costa Rican-American physicist and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of seven space shuttle missions, making him the record holder for most spaceflights by an astronaut (a record he shares with Jerry L. Ross). He is one of the first American citizens of Latin American descent to go into space.

Education

Chang-Diaz was born in San Jose, Costa Rica to a father of Chinese, Japanese and Amerindian descent and a Spanish Costa Rican mother (both Costa Rican-born) He studied at La Salle School and part of his high school, then he moved to the United States to finish his high school education. He earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1973, and a Sc.D. degree in applied plasma physics 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 included 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

Chang-Diaz is 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 Honor Citizen by the National Congress. The Costa Rican National High Technology Center, among other institutions, is named after him.

Due to the traditional naming structure in Latin America (father's last name, then mother's last name) he is typically referred to as Franklin Chang.

Chang-Diaz created the 'Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket' (VASIMR) for spacecraft propulsion and it is currently in development by his company, Ad Astra Rocket Company.

His daughter, Sonia Chang-Díaz (born 1978), a former teacher in the Boston Public Schools and outreach director for the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, won the Democratic nomination for the Second Suffolk district seat in the Massachusetts Senate, covering portions of the city of Boston in September 2008 [ [http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/09/changdiaz_beats.html Chang-Diaz beats Wilkerson in state Senate primary. "Boston Globe" 16 September 2008 ] ] ; if elected in November 2008, she would be the first Latin American woman elected to that body. [ [http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/09/17/a_senate_fixture_toppled/ A Senate fixture toppled: Chang-Díaz defeats embattled Wilkerson in primary.] "Boston Globe" 17 September 2008]

ee also

*Space exploration

References

External links

* [http://www.adastrarocket.com Ad Astra Rocket]
* [http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/support/researching/aspl/index.html Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory]
* [http://www.cenat.ac.cr/cenat/?q=node/4 Centro Nacional de Alta Tecnología Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz (CeNAT)]
* [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chang.html NASA Biography]
* [http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/astronauts/english/chang-diaz_franklin.htm Spacefacts biography of Franklin Chang-Diaz]