Mission Specialist Jose Hernandez - STS-128
NASA engineer and Mission Specialist, Jose Hernandez wanted to fly in space ever since he heard that the first Hispanic-American had been chosen to travel into space.
“I was hoeing a row of sugar beets in a field near Stockton, Calif., and I heard on my transistor radio that Franklin Chang-Diaz had been selected for the Astronaut Corps,” says Hernandez, who was a senior in high school at the time.
“I was already interested in science and engineering,” Hernandez remembers, “but that was the moment I said, ‘I want to fly in space.’ And that’s something I’ve been striving for each day since then.”
And the hard work has paid off. He was selected for training as a mission specialist as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class.
One of four children in a migrant farming family from Mexico, Hernandez — who didn’t learn English until he was 12 years old — spent much of his childhood on what he calls “the California circuit,” traveling with his family from Mexico to southern California each March, then working northward to the Stockton area by November, picking strawberries and cucumbers at farms along the route. Then they would return to Mexico for Christmas, and start the cycle all over again come spring.
“Some kids might think it would be fun to travel like that,” Hernandez laughs, “but we had to work. It wasn’t a vacation.”
After graduating high school in Stockton, Hernandez enrolled at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering and was awarded a full scholarship to the graduate program at the University of California in Santa Barbara, where he continued his engineering studies. In 1987 he accepted a full-time job with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he had worked as a co-op in college.
While at Lawrence Livermore, Hernandez worked on signal and image processing applications in radar imaging, computed tomography, and acoustic imaging.
Later in his career, Hernandez worked on developing quantitative x-ray film imaging analysis techniques for the x-ray laser program. Hernandez applied these techniques in the medical physics arena and co-developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system.
This system has proven useful for detecting breast cancer at an earlier stage than present film/screen mammography techniques.
Hernandez has won recognition awards for his work on this project. He has also worked in the international arena where he represented Lawrence Livermore and the U.S. Department of Energy on Russian nuclear non-proliferation issues.
During the astronaut application process, Hernandez had to meet with a review board. That’s where he came face-to-face with his original inspiration: Franklin Chang-Diaz.
“It was a strange place to find myself, being evaluated by the person who gave me the motivation to get there in the first place,” Hernandez says. “But I found that we actually had common experiences — a similar upbringing, the same language issues. That built up my confidence. Any barriers that existed, he had already hurdled them.”
Hernandez smiles. “Now it’s my turn!”
And others can follow
Jose Hernadez exemplifies all that is good in the immigrants some would wish to see deported. The right wing opposition who opposes Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the DREAM ACT, also opposes contributions that immigrants such as Jose have contributed to this country.
Our haste to deport children who were brought here as infants and young children, who know no other country than the United States, and who have assimilated, become educated and willing to contribute, is a brain drain this country can ill afford.
And our need to label children as “anchor babies” is offensive to most patriotic Americans. Todays child might well be one to follow in Jose’s footsteps or beyond.
Jose Hernandez’ story is one of hundred’s of thousands of successful migrants from Mexico who have contributed to the United States.
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