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Top 10 interesting facts about Franklin Chang-Díaz
Some of the biggest questions that we as living beings struggle with include what is our purpose on earth? What are we meant to accomplish? We spent years trying to figure these questions out, and very few of us are able to do.
Franklin Chang-Diaz is one of those few individuals who was able to overcome this life conundrum. This is because from his childhood he knew what he was meant to do, he took the necessary steps in order to achieve his life purpose, and finally he was able to accomplish so much more.
So who is this man crushing it at life? Franklin Ramón Chang-Díaz is a Costa Rican-born American mechanical engineer, physicist and former NASA astronaut. In 2005, he started his own company, the Ad Astra Rocket Company, which is dedicated to the development of advanced plasma rocket propulsion technology.
For more life inspiration, here are the top 10 interesting facts about Franklin Chang-Díaz;
1. Chang-Díaz carved his own path in life
Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz during Extravehicular Activity (EVA) in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) – Wikimedia Commons
Chang-Díaz is celebrated worldwide for leading the installation of major components of the International Space Station (ISS) and conducting critical repairs on the Canadian ISS Robotic Arm. In additional, the remarkable breakthroughs his company, Ad Astra Rocket Company, is making in plasma rocket propulsion technology has revolutionized spacecraft propulsion.
With him having achieved this much, you would think that maybe he comes from an influential family. Chang-Díaz was born in San José, Costa Rica on April 5, 1950, to Ramón Ángel Chang Morales, an oil worker and María Eugenia Díaz Romerois.
Chang-Díaz literary worked very hard to achieve everything that he has been able to accomplish up to date. He studied hard and graduated with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut. Later on, he earned a Ph.D. degree in applied plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
2. Chang-Díaz failed his classes
“F” grade written in red pen on notebook paper – Unsplash
When things do not go our way, it is easy to throw in the towel. However, Chang-Díaz’s life story encourages us to always rise up to the challenge.
It is hard to imagine a man whom we consider today to be a genius at one point was at the bottom of his class. Chang-Díaz immigrated to the United States to finish his high school education at Hartford Public High School in Connecticut. At this time he struggled to understand English and as a result his grades significantly dropped.
This is the point where he would have just given up and went back home, considering Chang-Díaz had graduated with an “A” while at Colegio de La Salle in San Jose. Instead, Chang-Díaz accepted to be mentored in English by one of his teachers because he understood he needed to be in the U.S. to accomplish his dream of going to space. His hard work paid off as he was able to get a full scholarship to the University of Connecticut.
3. An error that allowed him to join university
Chang-Díaz had received a full scholarship to The University of Connecticut. Unfortunately, he was not meant to receive the scholarship. “They said they made a mistake…they told me, ‘you deserve this scholarship, but you are not a US citizen. We thought that you were from Puerto Rico, not Costa Rica.”
Fortunately, through this error, he joined the university and had attended several classes. The mistake was uncovered during his fall enrollment. You would think that this was the end of his studies, considering his family was not financially stable to pay his university fess. But shock on you!
Not giving up, Chang-Díaz told his high school teachers, who wrote a petition to convince the Connecticut legislature to reverse their decision. In his favour, the legislation expended a one-year scholarship and in-state tuition rates.
At the end of the year, Chang-Díaz took out loans and worked in the university physics department. He was able to graduate with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering.
4. The first naturalized citizen from Latin America to go into space
Franklin Chang-Diaz smiles while posing between the robotics workstations in the International Space Station (ISS) Destiny U.S. Laboratory – Wikimedia Commons
You may wonder why is it important to highlight that he is the first Latin American immigrant NASA Astronaut selected to go into space? For a long time developing nations have faced prejudice from developed nations and this demonstrates given the right opportunity even developing nations citizens can rise to the occasion.
It also acts as a motivation to the children in developing nations that there is no limit to what you can achieve. Dream big and don’t let your surrounding define you.
In Chang-Diaz own words, “I think people—young people—here in Costa Rica, and maybe in other places as well, can relate to my story because I wasn’t privileged. I didn’t have any advantages, other than a wonderful set of parents and a wonderful infrastructure of people who helped. I didn’t come into the world as a rich person. I didn’t have special connections. I wasn’t even born in the right country. So if I can do it, anybody can.”
5. Like father, like daughter
Sonya Chang-Diaz – Wikipedia
Did you know that Sonia Rosa Chang-Díaz is the daughter of Franklin Chang-Díaz and his ex-wife Candice Chang? For those few who do not know Sonia Chang-Díaz is, she is an American politician who serves in the Massachusetts Senate from the 2nd Suffolk district as a member of the Democratic Party.
What makes Sonia Rosa Chang-Díaz so special? She is the first Hispanic woman elected to the state senate and the only woman of color currently serving in the Massachusetts Senate. This is just poetic as her father Chang-Díaz Ramón Chang-Díaz is the first Latin American immigrant NASA Astronaut selected to go into space.
In a tweet to celebrate her father’s birthday, Sonia appreciated him by saying, “Thank you for breaking barriers, giving generations of kids a love for science, and teaching me early on that there’s no time to waste in doing good. Proud to be your daughter every day.”
6. Bridging the gap between scientists and astronauts
The first sixteen NASA astronauts, February 1963 – Wikipedia
The first astronauts were military personnel who had experience flying jet aircraft and backgrounds in engineering. As Chang-Díaz puts it during an interview, “But in the early days of spaceflight, people tended to be one or the other. The astronauts were military men, and the rocket scientists designed the rockets, but they never got to fly.”
He continues, “When I first started, it was clear that being a scientist made you less likely to fly. But that didn’t seem right to me, and I kept working to remain both a scientist and an astronaut. In the end, I won out. I remained a scientist, and I flew more than anybody else.”
This gap should not exist, according to Chang-Díaz because, “both parts of the personality are important—having military discipline is just as important as having an inquisitive mind, a formally trained, scientific mind. What I’ve done to prove that those qualities can fit together in one person is one of the most satisfying accomplishments in my 25 years in the space program.”
7. Astronaut with the most missions
Astronaut Jerry Ross – Wikipedia
At the time of writing this article, Chang-Díaz and Jerry L. Ross are tying the record for the most spaceflights with Chang-Díaz having 7 flights, 62.8 days and Ross having 7 flights, 58.0 days.
Chang-Díaz’s first flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia in January 1986. He then went on to fly STS-34 (1989); which deployed the Galileo spacecraft that explored Jupiter, STS-46 (1992), STS-60 (1994), STS-75 (1996), STS-91 (1998), and STS-111 (2002); during which he participated in three space walks to help repair the robotic arm of the International Space Station.
8. The moment Chang-Díaz thought he won’t make it
An Apollo boilerplate command module is on exhibit in the Meteor Crater Visitor Center in Winslow, Arizona – Wikipedia
In 1970 the Apollo space flight programme was cancelled for an indefinite amount of time due to lack of funding. At this time Chang-Díaz was a student at the University of Connecticut where one of his professors discouraged him from pursing a career in aerospace engineering stating that NASA had cancelled the Apollo program, and there were thousands of aerospace engineers out of work.
The professor’s words greatly impacted Chang-Díaz. He explains, “That was a sobering thought, and it was enough—because this was a teacher that I respected—to steer me a little bit, but not completely, off track.”
Not giving up on NASA and his dreams, Chang-Díaz went on to pursue a Ph.D. degree in applied plasma physics because he believed the space program was bound to return, and nuclear power would be needed for space travel.
Fortunately, in 1977, the Space Program returned and Chang-Díaz was able to seize his moment.
9. Rejection from NASA
Businessman showing thumbs down as an indication of rejection – Unsplash
Chang-Díaz was rejected in his first application to the Astronaut Program in 1977. He was successful in his second application in 1979 becoming one of 19 astronaut candidates selected by NASA from a pool of more than 3,000 applicants.
This was a life-changing moment for Chang-Díaz. “After I got that call, I went running out the door and across the street—I almost got run over by a cab. My life changed completely from that day on.”
10. Life after NASA
Dr. Chang with students during the filming of Odyssey 2050 The Movie at Ad Astra Rocket Company, 2010 – Wikipedia
After leaving NASA, Chang-Díaz set up the Ad Astra Rocket Company, which he believed would revolutionize space travel. Years later, the company produced the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), an electrical propulsion device for use in space.
He is active in environmental protection and this is well illustrated in his role in the film Odyssey 2050 in which he encourages young people to get motivated about environmental issues.
In addition, Chang-Díaz is also an Adjunct Professor in Physics and Astronomy at Rice University. He has been on the board of directors of Cummins since December 8, 2009.
