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Franklin Ramon Chang-Díaz (born April 5, 1950, San José, Costa Rica) [1] is an American mechanical engineer, physicist, and former NASA astronaut. He is the sole founder and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company [2] as well as a member of the Cummins' board of directors. [3] He became an American citizen in 1977. [4]
STS-61-C's seven-person crew included the first Costa Rican-born astronaut, Franklin Chang-Díaz, the second African-American shuttle pilot, Charles Bolden, and the second sitting politician to fly in space, Rep. Bill Nelson (D-FL). Both Bolden and Nelson would also later go on to become Administrators of NASA.
First person from Latin America to fly in space. First person of African descent in space. First Cuban in space. Soyuz 38 (September 18, 1980) 2 Rodolfo Neri Vela February 19, 1952 Mexico: First Mexican in space. STS-61-B (November 26, 1985) 3 Franklin Chang-Diaz April 5, 1950 United States ( Costa Rica) First Costa Rican astronaut
Of this group, Franklin Chang-Diaz would become the first Hispanic-American in space, Michael Smith would perish in the Challenger disaster, and John Blaha would fly aboard the Mir space station. Both Jerry Ross and Chang-Diaz currently jointly hold the record of number of crewed spaceflights flown, at seven.
First person to be launched into space more than six times: Jerry Ross (April 8, 2002, STS-110) [6] First astronaut spouse selected as an astronaut: William Fisher (August 27, 1985, STS-51-I; married to Anna Fisher, Group 8 astronaut) [7] In addition, Chang-Diaz and Ross share the world record for the most spaceflights, with seven each. [8]
The President and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company is retired astronaut Franklin Chang-Díaz. [1] The company has been working on Chang-Díaz's concept of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, known by its acronym VASIMR. The VASIMR is intended to achieve several advantages over current chemical rocket designs, including lunar cargo ...
He is the first astronaut from Sicily Samantha Cristoforetti, 541st person in space, who has performed the longest single spaceflight by a woman, as of 2015 Andreas Mogensen, joint 544th person and the first Dane in space Aidyn Aimbetov, joint 544th person and the first solely Kazakh cosmonaut Hazza Al Mansouri, joint 564th person and the first ...
They were also the first animals to safely return from space. [56] Albert II, a rhesus monkey, became the first mammal in space aboard a U.S. V-2 rocket on June 14, 1949, and died on reentry due to a parachute failure. The first dogs in space were launched 22 July 1951 aboard a Soviet R-1V. "Tsygin" and "Dezik" reached a height of 100 km (62 mi ...