To the Stars “It [the rocket] will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven.” — Wernher von Braun, 'The Jupiter People,' Time magazine, 10 February 1958. Franklin Chang Diaz was born April 5, 1950, in Costa Rica. He is of Chinese and Costa Rican Spanish descent. Diaz created improved versions of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR). He created, imagined, and innovated to overcome challenges