Franklin Chang Diaz Astronaut, Rocket Scientist, Chairman and CEO, Ad Astra Rocket Company Houston, Texas

Franklin Chang Diaz is an astronaut, rocket scientist and a new space entrepreneur. He was born April 5, 1950, in San José, Costa Rica and, after completing his secondary education, immigrated to the United States in 1968 to pursue his dream of space flight. After learning English as a senior student at Hartford Public High School he earned a scholarship to the University of Connecticut. He earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut and a doctorate (1977) in applied plasma physics from MIT.

Selected by NASA in May 1980, Dr. Chang Diaz became an astronaut in August 1981. A veteran of seven space flights, he has logged over 1,600 hours in space, including 19 hours and 31 minutes in three spacewalks. In July of 2005, Dr. Chang Diaz left NASA for the private sector. He is the founder and current Chairman and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company, a private firm specializing in advanced plasma rockets based in Houston Texas, with research operations in Houston and Costa Rica. Dr. Chang Diaz, inventor of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR, U.S. patent 2002) and other advanced propulsion technologies founded the Ad Astra Rocket Company in 2005, after 25 years of service as a NASA astronaut. He continues to serve in academia as an adjunct professor of Physics at Rice University and the University of Houston. He is married and has four daughters.