Franklin Chang-Diaz (b. 1950)
Filed under the name Franklin · February 25, 2026
I spent thirty-four years on a mill floor, so I don't pretend to understand the physics behind flying a Space Shuttle seven times, but I understand what it takes to keep showing up to a job most people would find terrifying, over and over, until you're one of the most experienced people who ever did it. Franklin Chang-Diaz did that. My union brothers used to say the real skill in dangerous work isn't being fearless, it's being disciplined enough that fear doesn't get the last word, and I imagine that holds just as true forty miles up as it does on a factory floor. I've got two stents in my chest now and a bad back from the mill, and I still respect anybody who chose a career where the stakes were that plain and clear. My grandson wants to be an astronaut, and I never used to think much of that dream until I read stories like this one. Some jobs you do because they need doing. This looks like one where a man just kept choosing to go back.