A Latino doctor will be part of NASA's new exploits
Among the twelve new astronauts selected by NASA this year and announced yesterday, there is a Latin. This is Francis Frank Rubio, a doctor and decorated Blackhawk UH-60 helicopter pilot, who flew more than 1,100 hours during deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, at which time he was awarded the Bronze Star, the Medal at Meritorious Service, Army Medal of Praise and Army Achievement Medal.
According to El Nuevo Herald, Rubio is a 41-year-old Salvadoran physician born in Los Angeles, California, and lived his teenage years in South Florida.
In explaining how he feels to be chosen from the 18,300 who asked between December 2015 and February 2016 to be part of NASA's select group of cosmonauts, he commented: "It's an incredible achievement ... I hope to represent Miami well."
His intense two-year training program will begin in August this year at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he must learn to fly jets, walk in space and even speak fluent Russian.
After this, he (the only Latin astronaut of the group) and his eleven companions will wait until they are assigned to one of the four space programs: the International Space Station, the Orion spacecraft or one of the commercial ships in development, the Boeing CST -100 Starliner or the SpaceX Crew Dragon.
For now, Rubio continues working to conquer his dream not only to go to space, but, who knows, maybe even step on Mars? While this achievement may now seem like an impossible dream for some, he has already shown that he is an expert at conquering the unattainable.
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