New Rocket Project Calls Costa Rica Home

Written by alanp

A huge advance has been made in space travel right here in Costa Rica. Franklin Chang-Diaz, a 57 year old Costa Rican and former NASA astronaut, has launched a ¨private venture to build a plasma powered rocket engine capable of sending a shuttle into space¨ quicker and cheaper than previous models.

The $3.5 million (US) lab has been funded by Costa Rican investors and has been built in Guanacaste. Diaz hopes to create a Silicon Valley in Costa Rica, which would bring hundreds of jobs and a steady cash flow to the area. He hopes to put hydrogen fueled plasma-powered rockets into space by 2010 and fly to mars by 2025.

Diaz sees Costa Rica as the perfect location for the project because it is a small enough country to change and will benefit the most from the program. Technology and science education is far behind that of the US, but is becoming more popular and evident yearly.

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