Franklin Chang Díaz

Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz (born April 5, 1950) is a Costa Rican-American mechanical engineer, physicist and former NASA astronaut. He became an American citizen in 1977. He is of Chinese (paternal grandfather) and Costa Rican Spanish (maternal side) descent. Chang Díaz is currently president and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the record holder as of 2014 for the most spaceflights (a record he shares with Jerry L. Ross). He was the third Latin American to go into space. Chang Díaz is a member of the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Family and education
Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz was born in San José, Costa Rica on April 5, 1950 to a father of Chinese descent, Ramón Ángel Chang Morales (born 1919), an oil worker whose own father fled China during the Boxer Rebellion. His mother is Costa Rican, María Eugenia Díaz Romero (born 1927). One of six children, he has a younger sister, Sonia Rosa (born December 1952), and his mother, brothers, and sisters live in Costa Rica. His elder daughters are Jean Elizabeth (born December 1973), and Sonia Rosa (born March 1978) who is a member of the Massachusetts Senate. He married Peggy Marguerite Doncaster in the United States on 17 December 1984 and his younger daughters are Lidia Aurora (born March 1988) and Miranda Karina (July 1995), both born in Houston, Texas.

He attended elementary school at Father Juan de Barnuevo in Altagracia de Orituco, Guarico state, Venezuela. He graduated from Colegio de La Salle in San José in November 1967, then moved to the United States to finish his high school education at Hartford Public High School in Connecticut, in 1969. He went on to attend the University of Connecticut, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and joined the federal TRIO Student Support Services program in 1973. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Doctor of Science in applied plasma physics in 1977. For his graduate research at MIT, Chang Díaz worked in the field of fusion technology and plasma-based rocket propulsion.

NASA career
Chang Díaz was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1980 and first flew aboard Space Shuttle mission 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 spacewalks 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 Díaz retired from NASA in 2005.

Post-NASA career
After leaving NASA, Chang Díaz set up the Ad Astra Rocket Company, which became dedicated to the development of advanced plasma rocket propulsion technology. Years of research and development have produced the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), an electrical propulsion device for use in space. With a flexible mode of operation, the rocket can achieve very high exhaust speeds, and even has the theoretical capability to take a manned rocket to Mars in 39 days.

Chang Díaz also is active in environmental protection and raising awareness about climate change, notably in his role in Odyssey 2050 The Movie in which he encourages young people to get motivated about environmental issues.

In addition, Chang Díaz is an Adjunct Professor in Physics and Astronomy at Rice University. He is currently on the board of directors of Cummins.

Awards and honors
Franklin Chang Díaz was inducted into the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 5, 2012 in a ceremony that took place in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Also, due to his career and scientific success, he has been decorated multiple times in Costa Rica and named Honor Citizen by the national legislature. The Costa Rican National High Technology Center (CeNAT), among other institutions, is named after him. In 2014, Chang Díaz was awarded the "Buzz Aldrin Quadrennial Space Award" by The Explorers Club for the VASMIR. Buzz Aldrin, whom Chang Díaz called a childhood hero, presented the award.