Meet the First Hispanic American in Space

Growing up in Costa Rica, Franklin Chang Díaz and his friends would put chairs sideways inside a big cardboard box in his backyard and pretend it was a rocket ship. Sitting with their backs to the ground, they would go through the countdown, imitate the launch procedures they’d heard about and, in their minds, visit other planets in search of monsters to discover and adventures to pursue. Years later, Chang Díaz found himself in a similar position. This time, however, he was seated inside NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia instead of a cardboard box. And its launch 30 years ago Tuesday—on Jan. 12, 1986—made him the first Hispanic American to go to space. “It wasn’t that different from what I was thinking as a little kid, that that was how it was going to feel,” Chang Díaz, now 65, recalls. “But that was before the actual liftoff. Before that, the countdown and the procedures seemed very familiar to me. I was mentally totally ready.” Which makes sense, as he’d had lots of time to prepare. In fact, his childhood passion for space was why he moved to the United States. After graduating from high school in Costa Rica, Chang Díaz worked at a bank for a year to save money. In 1968, on a one-way ticket purchased by his father, he moved to Connecticut to live with relatives. It was the year of Frank Borman’s orbit of the moon. After enrolling in high school again for a year in order to learn Engl...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized People space Source Type: news