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Drake Family

When Frank Drake first brought his daughter Nadia to Puerto Rico in 1980, he dipped her feet in the Caribbean waters—a tradition that means that person will return to the island.

Frank Drake shows family members Zekin and Adma Shakhashiri around the telescope's giant dish.

During Nadia's first trip to the observatory, her mother Amahl Drake (left), grandmother Adma Shakhashiri (right), and father Frank Drake (not pictured) took her to look out over the telescope's massive dish.

In 2013, the Arecibo Observatory celebrated its 50th anniversary. Frank and Nadia Drake were there for the science and festivities, neither imagining that the telescope would lie in ruins seven years later.

Amahl Drake worked at the National Academy of Sciences before moving to Cornell University in the 1970s, where she helped Frank Drake—then the director of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center—as he managed the Arecibo Observatory.

Frank Drake observes a solar eclipse in 1977. Drake moved his family to Puerto Rico when he was appointed director of the Arecibo Observatory in 1966—and he's been enchanted with the island ever since.