How Old Is Franklin Chang Diaz? Franklin Chang Diaz Birthday
Franklin Chang Diaz was born on April 5, 1950 and is 74 years old now.
Birthday: April 5, 1950
How Old - Age: 74
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Franklin Chang Diaz - Biography
Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz (born April 5, 1950) is a Costa Rican-American mechanical engineer, physicist and former NASA astronaut. He became an American citizen in 1977. He is of Chinese (paternal grandfather) and Costa Rican Spanish (maternal side) descent. Chang Díaz is currently president and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the record holder as of 2014 for the most spaceflights (a record he shares with Jerry L. Ross). He was the third Latin American to go into space. Chang Díaz is a member of the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame.
He graduated from Colegio de La Salle in San José in November 1967, then moved to the United States to finish his high school education at Hartford Public High School in Connecticut, in 1969. He went on to attend the University of Connecticut, where he earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and joined the federal TRIO Student Support Services program in 1973. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a Ph.D. degree in applied plasma physics in 1977. For his graduate research at MIT, Chang Díaz worked in the field of fusion technology and plasma-based rocket propulsion.
Franklin Chang Díaz was inducted into the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 5, 2012 in a ceremony that took place in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Also, due to his 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 (CeNAT), among other institutions, is named after him. In 2014, Chang Díaz was awarded the "Buzz Aldrin Quadrennial Space Award" by The Explorers Club for the VASIMR. Buzz Aldrin, whom Chang Díaz called a childhood hero, presented the award.
