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astronautix.com Chang-Diaz
Dr Franklin Ramon Chang-Diaz Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Children: Four. Birth Date: 05 April 1950. Birth City: San Jos�. Birth Country: Costa Rica. Nationality: American. Degree: PhD. Group: 1980 NASA Group. Date Selected: 19 May 1980. Number of Flights: 6. Total Time: 52.91 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Franklin R. Chang-D�az (Ph.D.)
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:
Born April 5, 1950, in San Jos�, Costa Rica, to the late Mr. Ram�n A. Chang-Morales and Mrs. Mar�a Eugenia D�az De Chang. Married to the former Peggy Marguerite Doncaster of Alexandria, Louisiana. Four children. He enjoys music, glider planes, soccer, scuba-diving, hunting, and hiking. His mother resides in Costa Rica.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from Colegio De La Salle in San Jos�, Costa Rica, in November 1967, and from Hartford High School in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1969; received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1973 and a doctorate in applied plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977.

SPECIAL HONORS:
Recipient of the University of Connecticut's Outstanding Alumni Award (1980); NASA Space Flight Medal (1986); the Liberty Medal from President Ronald Reagan at the Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration in New York City (1986); the Medal of Excellence from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (1987); NASA Exceptional Service Medals (1988, 1990, 1993); American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award (1989); NASA Space Flight Medals (1986, 1989, 1992, 1994). Outstanding Technical Contribution Award, Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (1993). Awarded the Cross of the Venezuelan Air Force by President Jaime Lusinchi during the 68th Anniversary of the Venezuelan Air Force in Caracas, Venezuela (1988). Recipient of three Honoris Causa Doctorates: Doctor of Science from the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica; Doctor of Science from the University of Connecticut and Doctor of Law from Babson College. Also Honorary faculty from the College of Engineering of the University of Costa Rica. Honorary Citizenship from the government of Costa Rica (April 1995). This is the highest honor Costa Rica confers to a foreign citizen, making him the first such honoree who was actually born there.

EXPERIENCE:
While attending the University of Connecticut, he also worked as a research assistant in the Physics Department and participated in the design and construction of high energy atomic collision experiments. Following graduation in 1973, he entered graduate school at MIT, becoming heavily involved in the United States' controlled fusion program and doing intensive research in the design and operation of fusion reactors. He obtained his doctorate in the field of applied plasma physics and fusion technology and, in that same year, joined the technical staff of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. His work at Draper was geared strongly toward the design and integration of control systems for fusion reactor concepts and experimental devices, in both inertial and magnetic confinement fusion. In 1979, he developed a novel concept to guide and target fuel pellets in an inertial fusion reactor chamber. More recently he has been engaged in the design of a new concept in rocket propulsion based on magnetically confined high temperature plasmas. As a visiting scientist with the M.I.T. Plasma Fusion Center from October 1983 to December 1993, he led the plasma propulsion program there to develop this technology for future human missions to Mars. In December 1993, Dr. Chang-D�az was appointed Director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center where he continues his research on plasma rockets. He is an Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of Houston and has presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.

In addition to his main fields of science and engineering, he worked for 2-1/2 years as a house manager in an experimental community residence for de-institutionalizing chronic mental patients, and was heavily involved as an instructor/advisor with a rehabilitation program for hispanic drug abusers in Massachusetts.

NASA EXPERIENCE:
Selected by NASA in May 1980, Dr. Chang-D�az became an astronaut in August 1981. While undergoing astronaut training he was also involved in flight software checkout at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), and participated in the early Space Station design studies. In late 1982 he was designated as support crew for the first Spacelab mission and, in November 1983, served as on orbit capsule communicator (CAPCOM) during that flight. From October 1984 to August 1985 he was leader of the astronaut support team at the Kennedy Space Center. His duties included astronaut support during the processing of the various vehicles and payloads, as well as flight crew support during the final phases of the launch countdown. He has logged over 1,800 hours of flight time, including 1,500 hours in jet aircraft.

Dr. Chang-D�az was instrumental in implementing closer ties between the astronaut corps and the scientific community. In January 1987, he started the Astronaut Science Colloquium Program and later helped form the Astronaut Science Support Group, which he directed until January 1989.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE:
A veteran of five space flights (STS 61-C in 1986, STS-34 in 1989, STS-46 in 1992, STS-60 in 1994, and STS-75 in 1996), Dr. Chang-D�az has logged over 1,033 hours in space.

STS 61-C (January 12-18, 1986) which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on the Space Shuttle Columbia. STS 61-C was a 6-day flight during which Dr. Chang-D�az participated in the deployment of the SATCOM KU satellite, conducted experiments in astrophysics, and operated the materials processing laboratory MSL-2. Following 96 orbits of the Earth, Columbia and her crew made a successful night landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Mission duration was 146 hours, 3 minutes, 51 seconds.

On STS-34 (October 18-23, 1989), the crew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis successfully deployed the Galileo spacecraft on its journey to explore Jupiter, operated the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Instrument (SSBUV) to map atmospheric ozone, and performed numerous secondary experiments involving radiation measurements, polymer morphology, lightning research, microgravity effects on plants, and a student experiment on ice crystal growth in space. STS-34 launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Mission duration was 119 hours and 41 minutes and was accomplished in 79 orbits of the Earth.

STS-46 (July 31-August 8, 1992), was an 8-day mission during which crew members deployed the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) satellite, and conducted the first Tethered Satellite System (TSS) test flight. Mission duration was 191 hours, 16 minutes, 7 seconds. Space Shuttle Atlantis and her crew launched and landed at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, after completing 126 orbits of the Earth in 3.35 million miles.

STS-60 (February 3-11, 1994), was the first flight of the Wake Shield Facility (WSF-1), the second flight of the Space Habitation Module-2 (Spacehab-2), and the first joint U.S./Russian Space Shuttle mission on which a Russian Cosmonaut was a crew member. During the 8-day flight, the crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery conducted a wide variety of biological materials science, earth observation, and life science experiments. STS-60 launched and landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission achieved 130 orbits of Earth in 3,439,705 miles.

STS-75 (February 22 to March 9, 1996), was a 15-day mission with principal payloads being the reflight of the Tethered Satellite System (TSS) and the third flight of the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3). The TSS successfully demonstrated the ability of tethers to produce electricity. The TSS experiment produced a wealth of new information on the electrodynamics of tethers and plasma physics before the tether broke at 19.7 km, just shy of the 20.7 km goal. The crew also worked around the clock performing combustion experiments and research related to USMP-3 microgravity investigations used to improve production of medicines, metal alloys, and semiconductors. The mission was completed in 252 orbits covering 6.5 million miles in 377 hours and 40 minutes.

MARCH 1997

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