Pip took this photo when we were working outside Lunar Gateway 6 (we call it "LG6"). I really like LG6 since it was the first lunar station built by the Central American Association for Aeronautics and Space (Asociación Centroamericana de Aeronáutica y el Espacio).
They have a plaque above the airlock that says, "Welcome to Lunar Gateway 6, dedicated to Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Costa Rican astronaut." I have to admit, I had never really heard of this astronaut, so I checked him out.
And I was astounded! He was born in Costa Rica, and he was a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions from 1986 to 2002. He logged more than 1,601 hours in space, including 19 hours and 31 minutes in three spacewalks. Wow!
But this is even more amazing: in August of 1968, Franklin arrived in the United States unable to speak English. By 1977 he had earned a Ph.D. in applied plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Wow (times a hundred)!
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| Source: NASA STS-91 Mission Specialist Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ph.D with Space Shuttle Discovery |
If you discover something amazing about an astronaut, tell me about it at
RamoneRocketeer -at- gmail -dot- com.
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