This weekend, the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame inducted retired NASA astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz — the first Latino inductee.
“I receive this honor with a great deal of humility because it is given to me by those who were always my heroes,” said Chang-Diaz to collectSpace.com.
“To be recognized by those who you admire is even more powerful than to be just recognized at all.”
Born in San Jose, Costa Rica, Chang-Diaz is the first Latin-American to go into space, a trip he has made seven times. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a doctorate in Applied Plasma Physics in 1977.
Chang-Diaz was inducted alongside fellow astronauts Kevin Chilton and Charles Precourt.
by Andrea Long Chavez