Costa Rica, represented by the Central American Aeronautics and Space Administration (ACAE), on Monday was officially accepted as a full member country of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) during the group’s 66th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2015), taking place in Jerusalem through Friday.
Ad Astra Rocket, the company founded by Tico scientist and ex-astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz, will develop space propulsion systems for a new NASA project, the company reported this week.
NASA's Hall of Fame astronaut and the first Tico in space, Franklin Chang, on Tuesday attended a special screening of director Ridley Scott’s new movie “The Martian,” based on the 2011 bestseller novel of the same name by U.S. author Andy Weir. In "The Martian," the Ares 3 crew travels aboard a Hermes spacecraft powered by four of Chang’s VASIMR engines.
Costa Rican astronaut Franklin Chang’s company Ad Astra Rocket has finalized a $9 million contract with NASA to help push the company's VASIMR deep space engine one step closer to flight.
To cap off their project, the students contacted the Dawn team directly to ask them a few questions about scientific aspects of the project and seek some career guidance. What better way to learn about a project than from the people working on it?
The plasma engine could also be mounted on a rocket to deflect asteroids heading too close to the Earth and eventually deep space missions to Mars and beyond.
Chang said he's been waiting for the past seven months for the state-owned oil refinery to sign off on the final stage of a jointly-developed hydrogen fuel project. In early March, he threw in the towel.
Chang is the Horatio Alger of astronauts. He arrived in the U.S. with $50, he graduated from high school on schedule, and he (literally) reached for the stars. “Dream’s Journey” is not a breezy read, but it is a powerful social document, told by the same man who has lived this extraordinary life.
"The excitement of exploration has to give way to the real business at hand: the expansion of humans into space. I’m not just talking about space tourism, but mining, research, resettling, everything. We don’t want to wait until the planet becomes uninhabitable."
