Franklin Chang-Diaz

Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz (San José, April 5, 1950) is an American astronaut (retired: July 2005), physicist and mechanical engineer of Costa Rican origin. He was the first Hispanic astronaut of NASA and one of the men with the most missions. He holds and shares a record for the number of trips to space aboard the space shuttle, with a total of seven NASA missions, carried out between 1986 and 2002. He is part of the NASA Hall of Fame.

Academic career

Descendant of Cantonese immigrants on his paternal side, and Creole on his maternal side. He studied and graduated from De La Salle College in San José, Costa Rica, in November 1967, and from Hartford Preparatory School in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1969. Subsequently, he entered the University of Connecticut, where he obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1973. Four years later he obtained a doctorate in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her doctoral research was based on fusion technology, and plasma-based jet propulsion.

Entry into NASA

Chang attended basic and secondary education in Costa Rica, and thanks to his high academic performance he obtained a scholarship to study mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut in 1973, and later a doctorate in applied physics at MIT in 1977.

He joined NASA in 1980, and was selected as an astronaut in 1981. He was in charge of various projects for five years, until January 12, 1986, when he saw his dream of traveling to space come true, on the STS mission. 61-C of the Shuttle Columbia that took off from the Kennedy Space Center.

Special honors

He has received: the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Connecticut (1980); the NASA Space Flight Medal (1986, 1989, 1992, 1994); the Medal of Freedom awarded by President Reagan at the Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration in New York City (1986); the Congressional Hispanic Conventicle Medal of Excellence (1987); the NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1988, 1990, 1993); the American Astronautical Society Flight Feat Award (1989); the Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution at the National Awards Conference for Hispanic Engineers (1993). He was awarded the Venezuelan Air Force Cross by President Jaime Lusinchi during the 68th Anniversary of the Venezuelan Air Force in Caracas, Venezuela (1988). He is the recipient of three Honoris Causa Doctorates.

Doctor of Science from the University of Connecticut and Doctor of Laws from Babson College. He has Honorary Citizenship of the government of Costa Rica (April 1995). This is the highest honor that Costa Rica grants to a foreigner, making him the first to receive such an honor having been born there.

On August 26, 2013, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Costa Rica, in a solemn ceremony where the rector of the UCR, Henning Jensen, highlighted that "the University recognizes and celebrates the academic excellence and the inspiring power of his personal achievements, and the reciprocity he has had towards Costa Rican society.

Experience

While attending the University of Connecticut, he also worked as a research assistant in the Department of Physics, and was involved in the design and construction of experiments in high-energy atomic collisions. After her graduation in 1973, she entered graduate school at M.I.T., becoming deeply involved in the U.S. controlled fusion program, and doing intensive research in the design and operation of fusion reactors. He earned his doctorate in the field of physics, in applications of plasma and fusion technology, and in the same year, he joined the technical staff of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. His work at Draper was heavily geared toward the design and integration of control systems for fusion reactor concepts and experimental apparatus, both inertial fusion and magnetically enclosed fusion. In 1979, he developed a new concept for guiding and following fuel pellets in an inertial fusion reactor chamber. Most recently he has been integrated into the design of a new rocket propulsion concept based on magnetically confined plasma at high temperatures. As a visiting scientist at the M.I.T. Fusion Center from October 1983 to December 1993, he guided the plasma propulsion program in developing that technology for future human missions to Mars. In December 1993, Dr. Chang-Diaz was named Director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center, where he continues his research in plasma for rockets. He is an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Houston and has presented numerous reports and articles at technical conferences and in scientific journals.

In addition to his primary fields in science and engineering, he worked for 2-1/2 years as a home manager at an experimental community residence in the integration of chronic mental patients, and was heavily involved as an instructor and counselor in a rehabilitation of Hispanic drug addicts in Massachusetts.

On May 5, 2012, he entered the NASA Hall of Fame, becoming the first Hispanic-American to do so. This honor is due to his career as a NASA astronaut and the work he has been doing after retiring from the US space agency.

Experience at NASA

Selected by NASA in May 1980, Dr. Chang-Diaz became an astronaut in August 1981. During his astronaut training, he was also involved in flight programming verification at the Aeronautical Electronics Integration Laboratory of the Shuttle (SAIL), and participated in the early designs of the studies for the International Space Station. In late 1982, he was designated as a support crew member for the first Space Laboratory mission, and in November 1983, he served as capsule-in-orbit communicator (CAPCOM) during that flight. From October 1984 to August 1985, he was the leader of the astronaut group in support of the Kennedy Space Center. His duties included supporting astronauts during the processing of various vehicles and payloads, as well as supporting the flight crew during the final phases of decommissioning. He has logged over 1,800 flight hours, including 1,500 hours in jet-powered aircraft.

Dr. Chang Díaz was in charge of bringing closer and creating closer ties between the astronaut corps and the scientific community - known as the monkey-man relationship. In January 1987, he started the Astronaut Science Interlocutor Program and then helped form the Astronaut Science Support Program, which he directed until January 1989.

Space flights

A veteran of seven space flights, Dr. Chang - Díaz has logged 1,601 hours in space. He was a member of the crews on STS-61-C in 1986, STS-34 in 1989, STS-46 in 1992, STS-60 in 1994, STS-75 in 1996, STS-91 in 1998 and STS-111 in 2002..

• STS-61-C (January 12-18, 1986) that was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at Columbia Space Shuttle. STS-61-C was a 6-day flight, during which Dr. Chang- Díaz participated in the SATCOM KU satellite deployment, conducted astrophysic experiments, and operated the material process laboratory (MSL-2, English acronym). After 96 Earth orbits, Columbia and its crew made a successful landing at the Edwards Air Force Base in California. The duration of the mission was 146.03.51.

• La STS-34 (October 18-23, 1989), the crew aboard the Atlantis Space Shuttle that successfully deployed the Galileo spacecraft on its mission to explore Jupiter, handled the Ultraviolet Solar Retrodispertion Instrument of the Shuttle (SSBUV, English acronyms) to map the atmospheric ozone, and performed numerous secondary experiments involving polymer radiation measures, STS-34 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and landed at the Edwards Air Force Base in California. The duration of the mission was 119 hours and 41 minutes and was carried out in 79 Earth orbits.

• STS-46 (31 July - 8 August 1992), it was an 8-day mission during which crew members deployed the European Recobrable Charger satellite (EURECA), and led the first test flight of the Satellite System in Brida (TSS, English acronym). The duration of the mission was 191 hours, 16 minutes and 7 seconds. The Atlantis Space Shuttle and its crew launched and landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and complete 126 Earth orbits at 3.35 million miles.

• STS-60 (February 3-11, 1994), was the first flight of the Estela Shield Device (February 3-11, 1994)Wake Shield FacilityWSF-1, English acronyms), the second flight of Space Room Module -2 (Spacehab-2), and the first joint mission of the USA. UU and Russia in the Space Shuttle, in which a Russian Cosmonaut was a member of the crew. During the 8-day flight, the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery conducted a wide variety of experiments in material biology science, Earth observations, and life science. STS-60 launched and landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission carried out 130 Earth orbits in 3,439,705 miles.

• STS-75 (22 February-9 March 1996), a 15-day mission whose main useful charges were the second flight of the Brida Satellite System (TSS) and the third flight of the U.S. Microgravity Useful Loading (USMP-3, English acronym). The satellite experiment in flange successfully demonstrated its ability to produce electricity and produced a lot of information on electrodynamics of flanges and plasma physics before breaking up shortly before reaching its maximum length (20.7 km), it broke missing one kilometer. The crew also worked on combustion experiments and other USMP-related research aimed at the development of medicines, metal alloys and semiconductors. The mission was completed in 252 orbits, covering 6.5 million miles in 377 hours and 40 minutes.

• STS-91 (June 2-12, 1998) Discovery Space Shuttle: It was the ninth and last link with the Russian space station "MIR", which marked the end of the successful first phase of Russian-American cooperation in space. The crew, a Russian included Valeri Ryumin, performed a logitimate re-suplement and hardware at the MIR station for the four days it was connected. They also conducted the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment involving the first research on antimatter of this type in space. The mission lasted 235 hours and 54 minutes.

• STS-111 (June 5-19, 2002) Endeavour Space Shuttle: The STS-111 mission sent the fifth permanent crew to the International Space Station (EEI, ISS) and a base built in Canada for the robotic arm of the station. The crew also repaired the latter by replacing one of its joints. It was the second mission of the ferry dedicated to sending research material to the station. Dr Chang-Díaz performed 3 space walks to help install the mobile base to the robotic arm. STS-111 brought back to expedition 4, which had been at the station for six and a half months. Due to weather reasons (small weather conditions in Florida), the Endeavour had to land at the base of the Edwards Air Force in California after 13 days, 20 hours and 35 minutes of flight.

Other achievements

Franklin Chang-Díaz has dedicated his life to research for plasma propulsion, which is essential for future long-distance space missions, such as the goal of reaching Mars, for which he has created the company Ad Astra Rocket Company (AARC), whose main headquarters is at the NASA Johnson Space Center, 25 miles south of the city of Houston, also has a headquarters in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

He has 1,601 hours of space experience, including 19 and a half hours of spacewalks. She has received multiple decorations from the Government of Costa Rica and Latin American countries. At the Children's Museum in San José, Costa Rica, there is a room dedicated to her work, which previously included a reproduction of her image on a robot.

News

Starting in 2005, Dr. Chang-Díaz founded a subsidiary of Ad Astra Rocket Company in Costa Rica and consists of a laboratory built approximately 10 km from the city of Liberia, Guanacaste, on the campus of Earth University.

The main tasks of AARC-CR are:

• Build a highly flexible device to explore the optimization of a plasma source for VASIMR space propulsion technology.
• Measure the residual heat of the source and characterize its distribution.
• Create engineering designs to effectively remove residual heat.

Franklin Chang-Díaz was an associate professor of Physics at Rice University and the University of Houston, and director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center.

In Costa Rica, he was a member of the board of notables that analyzed the Central American FTA with the United States