Plasma Made in Costa Rica
After five months of hard work at the plant created by former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang near Liberia, plasma, the fourth state of matter, was produced.

An ion and electron soup found naturally in stars such as the Sun, plasma would fuel rockets traveling to Mars and other distant places in space, because the fuel economy and fast acceleration provided by plasma would make space travel easier.

The experiment in the Costa Rican lab was repeated several times and was equally successful each time.

Connected via video-conference, Franklin Chang celebrated with his fellow countrymen what he defined as the graduation of his Costa Rican team, because they demonstrated that they have mastered the plasma field.

 “This is a historical turning point for our company – Ad Astra Rocket – and for the country,” Chang said.

The physicist life project is the plasma-fueled engine (VASIMR), which he expects to start tests on the Earth by the end of next year and to travel to the International Space Station in the year 2010.