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Franklin Chang-Díaz
Franklin Ramon Chang-Díaz (born April 5, 1950, San José, Costa Rica) is a Costa Rican-American Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer, physicist, and former NASA astronaut. He is the sole founder and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company as well as a member of the Cummins' board of directors. He became an American citizen in 1977., ''Wired Science'', November 14, 2007 He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, tying the record, as of 2021 for the most spaceflights (a record set STS-110, two months earlier by Jerry L. Ross). He was the third Latin American, and the first Latin American immigrant NASA astronaut selected to go into space. Chang-Díaz is a member of NASA's Astronaut Hall of Fame. Family and education Franklin Ramón Chang-Díaz was born in San José, Costa Rica on April 5, 1950, to Ramón Ángel Chang Morales, an oil worker whose own father fled from China during the Boxer Rebellion, and María Eugenia Díaz. One of six children, he has a younger sister, So ...
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Chang (surname)
Cháng () is the pinyin romanization of Chinese, romanization of the Chinese surname (''Cháng''). It was listed 80th among the Song Dynasty, Song-era ''Hundred Family Surnames''. "Chang" is also the Wade-Giles romanization of two Chinese surnames written Zhang (surname), Zhang in pinyin: one extremely common and written in Traditional Chinese and in Simplified Chinese, and another quite rare and written as in both systems. There is also a rare case of in Hong Kong written as Chang as well. For full details on them, see the "Zhang (surname), Zhang" and "Zheng (surname), Zheng" article. In Macao, this is the spelling of the surname "Zeng (surname), Zeng" . "Chang" is also a common spelling of the surname / (Chen (surname), Chen in Mandarin pinyin) in Peru. Romanization 常 is romanized as Ch'ang in Wade-Giles, although the apostrophe is often omitted in practice. It is romanized as Soeng and Sheung (surname), Sheung in Cantonese language, Cantonese; Seong and Siông in Minna ...
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STS-111
STS-111 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. STS-111 resupplied the station and replaced the Expedition 4 crew with the Expedition 5 crew. It was launched on 5 June 2002, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Crew Mission highlights STS-111, in addition to providing supplies, rotated the crews aboard the International Space Station, exchanging the three Expedition 4 members (1 Russian, 2 American) for the three Expedition 5 members (2 Russian, 1 American). The Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) carried experiment racks and three stowage and resupply racks to the station. The mission also installed a component of the Canadarm2 called the Mobile Base System (MBS) to the Mobile Transporter (MT) (which was installed during STS-110); This was the second component of the Canadian Mobile Servicing System, or MSS. This gave the mechanical arm the capability to "inchworm" from the U.S. Lab fixture to the MB ...
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Spaceflights
Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflights operate either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The first spaceflights began in the 1950s with the launches of the Soviet Sputnik satellites and American Explorer and Vanguard missions. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs. Other current spaceflight are conducted to the International Space Station and to China's Tiangong Space Station. Spaceflights include the launches of Earth observation and telecommunications satellites, interplanetary missions, the rendezvouses and dockings with space stations, and crewed spaceflights on scientific o ...
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Space Shuttle Missions
The Space Shuttle is a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, conducted science experiments in orbit, and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS). The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. From 1981 to 2011 a total of 135 missions were flown, all launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During that time period the fleet logged 1,322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds of flight time. The longest orbital flight of the Shuttle was STS-80 at 17 days 15 hours, while the shortest flight was STS-51-L at one minute 13 seconds when the Space Shuttle ''Space ...
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Wired Science
''Wired Science'' was a weekly television program that covered modern scientific and technological topics. In January 2007 PBS aired pilot episodes for three different science programs, including ''Wired Science''. Using Nielsen ratings, CPB-sponsored research and public feedback, PBS selected ''Wired Science'' for a 10-episode run in the fall schedule. The program was a production of KCET Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, .... In July 2008, the show was officially cancelled. References External links ''Wired Science'' blogat Wired News ''Wired Science'' episode guideat PBS * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wired Science PBS original programming 2000s American documentary television series 2007 American television series debuts 2007 American television series en ...
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Cummins
Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, electric vehicle components, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipment, including Fuel injection, fuel systems, air handling systems Control system, controls, filtration, Emission control system, emission control, Electricity generation, electrical power generation systems, and Engine control unit, engine control units. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, Cummins sells in approximately 190 countries and territories through a network of more than 600 company-owned and independent distributors and approximately 7,200 dealers. History The Cummins Engine Company was founded in Columbus, Indiana on February 3, 1919, by mechanic Clessie Cummins and banker William Glanton Irwin. The company focused on developing the diesel engine, which was invented 20 years earlier. Despite several well-publicized endu ...
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Ad Astra Rocket Company
The Ad Astra Rocket Company, a U.S. Delaware corporation, is a rocket propulsion company dedicated to the development of advanced plasma rocket propulsion technology. Located in Webster, Texas, three miles away from NASA's Johnson Space Center, and in Liberia, Costa Rica, the company was incorporated on January 14, 2005. The President and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company is retired astronaut Franklin Chang-Díaz.Ad Astra Rocket Company – About us
company website, accessed 2010-03-10
The company has been working on Chang-Díaz's concept of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, known by its acronym VASIMR. The VASIMR is intended to achieve several advantages over current chemical rocket designs, including ...
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Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems. It is one of the oldest and broadest of the List of engineering branches, engineering branches. Mechanical engineering requires an understanding of core areas including mechanics, Analytical dynamics, dynamics, thermodynamics, materials science, design, structural analysis, and electricity. In addition to these core principles, mechanical engineers use tools such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), and product lifecycle management to design and analyze manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and industrial machinery, machinery, HVAC, heating and cooling systems, transport systems, ...
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Sts-60-patch
STS-6 was the sixth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the maiden flight of the . Launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 4, 1983, the mission deployed the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-1, into orbit, before landing at Edwards Air Force Base on April 9, 1983. STS-6 was the first Space Shuttle mission during which a Extravehicular activity was conducted, and hence was the first in which the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) was used. Crew Commander Paul Weitz had previously served as Pilot on the first Skylab crewed mission (Skylab-2), where he lived and worked in Skylab for nearly a month from May to June 1973. After Skylab, Weitz became the Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office under Chief Astronaut John Young. Bobko originally became an astronaut for the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program but later joined NASA in 1969 after the MOL program's cancellation. Prior to STS-6 he participated in the Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test (S ...
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