| Franklin Chang-diaz |
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Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz, Sc.D. (born 5 April 1950 ) is a Costa Rica n- American Physicist and Astronaut . He participated in seven NASA Space Shuttle missions. He is the Hispanic in space Chang-Diaz was born in San José, Costa Rica to a Chinese- Hispanic father and Hispanic mother, 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. 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 EVA s as part of the construction of the International Space Station . Chang-Diaz is also an adjunct professor of physics at Rice University and at the University Of Houston , and director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center . He is currently testing a prototype of the VASIMR rocket. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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