NE North Dakota News

Jose Hernandez, a former NASA astronaut known for his journey from migrant farmworker to space traveler, will visit the University of North Dakota (UND) on September 17. The event is part of the Hilyard Center’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.

Hernandez is scheduled to speak at the Memorial Union ballroom from 3 to 4 p.m., followed by a meet-and-greet with attendees. He will also sign the NASA space capsule displayed at UND’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.

Currently, Hernandez is CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering, an engineering consultancy based in Stockton, California. In 2016, he received the National Hispanic Hero Award from the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute.

His life story inspired the 2023 film “A Million Miles Away,” in which actor Michael Pena portrays Hernandez. After applying to NASA eleven times, Hernandez joined as a materials research engineer in 2001 and became branch chief by 2002. He was selected as part of NASA’s 19th class of astronauts in 2004 and completed candidate training two years later.

In 2009, Hernandez flew aboard the STS-128 Discovery mission to the International Space Station (ISS), where he participated in crew rotation, module attachment, and transferring more than 18,000 pounds of supplies and equipment during nearly two weeks in orbit. His team conducted three spacewalks over 217 orbits around Earth before returning home.

Raised in a family of migrant farmworkers from Mexico, Hernandez grew up traveling across California picking crops by hand. Reflecting on his inspiration to become an astronaut, he said: “I was hoeing a row of sugar beets in a field near Stockton, and I heard on my transistor radio that Franklin Chang-Diaz had been selected for the Astronaut Corps,” Hernandez recalled. “I was already interested in science and engineering, but that was the moment I said, ‘I want to fly in space.’”

He earned an electrical engineering degree from University of the Pacific in Stockton and continued his studies at University of California, Santa Barbara on a full scholarship. In 1987, he began working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as an electronics engineer until joining NASA in 2001. At Livermore Lab, he contributed to developing digital mammography imaging systems for breast cancer detection and managed international nuclear non-proliferation initiatives with Russia through coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Hernandez left NASA in 2011 after his service as an astronaut.