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Former astronaut wants to bring
space industry to Central
America
Former NASA astronaut and
researcher Franklin Chang-Diaz
wants to bring the space
industry to his native Costa
Rica.
Chang told the Costa Rican
newspaper El Financiero that
he'll start looking for 50
Central American investors to
finance rocket production in the
region.
He says he hopes to set the
project rolling in July and
start producing his
Magneto-Plasma Rocket by 2011
for sale to space agencies.
Chang-Diaz seemed surprised by
the positive reaction to plans
for bringing the space industry
to Central America -- a region
where many people's main
activity is still subsistence
farming.
Chang-Diaz calculates that it'll
take about us$150 million
dollars to fund the project, and
hopes to raise about us$15
million dollars from Central
American investors. He says he
already has backing from
European and American investors,
as well as universities.
About 90 percent of the rocket
production process would be done
in Houston, but about ten
percent would be performed at a
laboratory Chang-Diaz has on
Costa Rica's Pacific coast.
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