Costa Rica's Space Program

Born in San José, Costa Rica, with a father of Chinese descent Franklin Chang-Diaz graduated at La Salle school and received his PHD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

From there Franklin has progressed to astronaut and he has received the Liberty from President Ronald Reagan.

But this is no easily won fairy tale. Franklin never wanted to be anything but an astronaut. So when he was a young Costa Rican school goer, he wrote NASA, asking how he could join the space corps.

The reply was devastating - he couldn't, the response said. Only Americans were accepted.

For a boy from Costa Rica, being an astronaut must have seemed like a pipe dream. But despite long odds, Franklin Chang-Diaz made the cut. He didn't give up. Instead, he decided to move to the United States.

After he moved to the US and finished the high school education there, earning 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.

He worked in the field of fusion technology and plasma-based rocket propulsion and 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 (space walks) 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. Franklin Chang-Diaz retired from NASA in 2005.

Chang-Diaz is now an adjunct professor of physics at Rice University and at the University of Houston and he has designed the Variable Specific Impulse Magneto plasma Rocket (VASIMR) for spacecraft propulsion, which is currently in development by his company, Ad Astra Rocket Company.

As a result of his illustrious 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 (CNAT), 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. His daughter, Sonia Chang-Díaz, is a member of the Massachusetts Senate, representing the second Suffolk district seat.

Life should be like a long journey, but the majority of us are just making a living, but some people like Franklin Chang-Diaz, are making a life.

How easy would it have been for the Costa Rican youth in receipt of the negative answer from NASA to give up on his dream. Even after his move to the USA when other prejudice may have made the journey for this young immigrant from Costa Rica tough - giving up must have seemed an easy option. But giving up is not a part of Franklin Chang-Diaz's makeup.

Franklin Chang- Diaz is a testement to never giving up and his story is not finished yet. We look forward to seeing the progress of his Ad-Astra rocket.