José Moreno Hernández (born August 7, 1962) is a Mexican-American engineer and former NASA astronaut. He currently serves as a Regent of the University of California.

Hernández was assigned to the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-128. He also served as chief of the Materials and Processes branch of Johnson Space Center. Hernández previously developed equipment for full-field digital mammography at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

In October 2011, Hernández, at the urging of President Barack Obama, ran for Congress as a Democrat in California’s newly redrawn 10th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.^[3] He won the Democratic nomination, but lost the 2012 general election to freshman incumbent Representative Jeff Denham.

Hernández is the subject of the 2023 biopic A Million Miles Away in which he is portrayed by Michael Peña.^[4][5]

Early life[edit]

Hernández was born in French Camp, California,^[6] but calls Stockton, California, his hometown. His family is originally from La Piedad, Michoacán, Mexico.^[7][8] In an August 25, 2009, conversation with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, Hernández stated that as a child, he lived half the year in La Piedad and half in the United States.^[8] As a child, Hernández worked alongside his family and other farmworkers throughout the fields of California, harvesting crops and moving from one town to another. He attended many schools and didn’t learn to speak English until he was 12.^[9][10] His first memory of space is about adjusting the television in order to watch the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.^[11]

Education[edit]

José Hernández participated in Upward Bound during high school, a Federal TRIO program that prepares students for college. He graduated from Franklin High School in Stockton. José Hernández was a generation one college student to graduate with a bachelors and masters degree.^[12] He earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of the Pacific in 1984. In 1986, Hernández earned an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.^[13] While in college, he was involved in the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program, an academic preparation program that provides support to students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds so they can attain four-year degrees in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) fields.^[14]

Engineering career[edit]

Hernández worked from 1990 to 2001 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.^[15] While there, Hernández, along with a commercial colleague, developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system.^[16] This invention aids in the early detection of breast cancer.^[16]

NASA career[edit]

In 2001, Hernández joined the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas.

After three years and being turned down eleven times for astronaut training by NASA, Hernández was selected in May 2004.^[17][18] In February 2006 he completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. On completing this initial training, Hernández was assigned to the Shuttle Branch to support Kennedy Space Center Operations in support of shuttle launch and landing preparations.

In May 2007, Hernández served as an aquanaut during the NEEMO 12 mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory, living and working underwater for eleven days.^[19]

Hernández worked various technical assignments until his selection on July 15, 2008, as a mission specialist on the STS-128 mission, which launched on August 28, 2009. While in orbit, Hernández became the first person to use the Spanish language in space while tweeting.^{[20][21][22][23]}

The STS-128 mission ended its 13-day journey on September 11, 2009, at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 5:53 pm PDT.

In 2023, a film entitled A Million Miles Away, starring Michael Peña was released and was about Hernández’s NASA career.^[24] The film was based on Hernández’s 2012 autobiography, “Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut.”^[25]