When visiting LBHS on May 19, former astronaut José Hernandez expressed, “I want to give tools to convert dreams into reality.” He also encouraged students to dream bigger than ever before.
José Hernández is the first migrant farmworker to become an American astronaut. Growing up Hernández moved around a lot with his family. He went through three different school districts in one year of kindergarten. He and his family worked throughout the fields of California along with other farmworkers. Hernández considers Stockton, California his hometown.
He didn’t learn to speak English until he was 12. During school he enjoyed math and science and participated in extracurriculars like MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement).
Hernández went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Pacific in 1984 and later went to get a masters degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1986. His fascination with space started after watching the last Apollo landing at 10 years old. He knew then he wanted to be an astronaut.
Hernández told his father about his dream and his dad gave him a five ingredient recipe to success. The first step is to define the goal, then recognize how far you are from it. The next step is to create a roadmap to get there. Next prepare yourself accordingly, and develop a strong work ethic. The last step is perseverance and this is important to Hernandez’s story.
A quote he holds dear is “If you are saying ‘I wanna be a nurse,’ ask yourself ‘why not be the doctor?’ Dream bigger.” A motto he lived his entire life as he pursued his dreams of space.
NASA rejected him eleven times. Despite this he kept pushing and working to get the opportunity. His first job was at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He was a big contributor to the mammography system for early detection of breast cancer. Along with this achievement Hernandez travelled to Russia multiple times and learned Russian to further the opportunities of nuclear components.
Eventually Hernández was accepted into the 19th class of NASA astronauts. They were called astronaut campaigns. The two year program was extensive and required a lot of training. It required learning to fly a jet, reading up on several books, and three tests held weekly. These tests were extremely hard to pass. If one failed they would receive a pink slip. Hernandez passed the two years and was met with more training. He overcame extreme weather condition training, wilderness survival training, and underwater analog mission training.
Hernández was a part of mission STS-128 that took off August 28, 2009. He was 47 when he went to space. After 37 years of dreaming of being an astronaut, his dreams finally came true.
