NASA astronaut José Hernández.Photo:Jim Grossmann/NASA
Jim Grossmann/NASA
Now, thanks to a new movie starringMichael Peñaas Hernández, we don’t have to imagine such a moment. It’s one of many that makeA Million Miles Away—which is in theaters and streaming on Amazon Prime Video Sept. 15—such an awe-inspiring biopic. The film is based on the true story of Hernández’s ascent from itinerant farmhand born in California to Mexican immigrants all the way to NASA flight engineer on the 2009 Space Shuttle mission STS-128.
Via video call, seated in front of the boldly blue uniform he wore training for that mission — “theSmurfsuit,” as one of his daughters once called the outfit — Hernández reveals to PEOPLE the “recipe to succeed” that his father, Salvador, gave him in 1972.
“He did two important things that evening: he empowered me to believe I can do it… and he sat me down and he made me justify why," he says.
STS-128 mission specialist José Hernández, on the flight deck of Space Shuttle Discovery.NASA
NASA
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What was the space launch for STS-128 like? “You go from zero to 17,500 miles an hour in eight and a half minutes,” explains Hernández. “I mean, this is the best Disneyland ride you can ever hope for.”
Being in outer space, he adds, is “very, very humbling.”
A photo of José Hernández and wife Adela aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.courtesy José Hernández
courtesy José Hernández
“I remember the very first time I unbuckled my seatbelt and experienced zero-G for the first time… I was making my best Superman impersonation as I floated down to the mid-deck. But then I saw the window that was pointed directly at Earth, and I said, ‘I gotta stop and look at Earth from this perspective. Only 500-and-some-odd people have had the privilege to see it, of seven billion.’”
He continues, “We were over North America. But what struck me as beautiful is that you couldn’t tell where Canada ended and the U.S. began. You couldn’t tell where the U.S. ended and Mexico began. And I said, ‘My gosh, I had to go out of this world to realize that borders are human-made concepts designed to separate us.’ If we can give the opportunity to our world leaders to have this same ‘aha’ moment, I will guarantee you we wouldn’t be having the troubles we have.”
These days, Hernández splits time between his California vineyardTierra Luna Cellars— a “full-circle moment,” he says, after growing up harvesting grapes and other fruits across California and Mexico — and public and motivational speaking. He is the author ofReaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut.
(Left to right:) Antonio Hernández, Marisol Hernández, Adela Hernández, José Hernández, Karina Hernández, Vanessa Hernández and Julio Hernández.courtesy José Hernández
Leaving NASA, he reveals, had a lot to do with “dedicating more time” to the five children he and wife Adela, 55, share: Julio, 29, Karina, 28, Vanessa, 26, Marisol, 24, and Antonio, 20. “I wanted to make sure I kept my kids on the straight and narrow, that they go to college.”
After attending Julio’s recent Purdue University graduation, at which he earned a PhD in Aeronautical and Astronautics Engineering, Hernández says, “I think I made the right decision.”
source: people.com
