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 FROM
FARMWORKER
TO
ASTRONAUT
MY PATH TO THE STARS
 FROM
FARMWORKER
TO
ASTRONAUT
MY PATH TO THE STARS

JOSÉ M. HERNÁNDEZ
 Piñata Books are full of surprises!

Piñata Books
An imprint of
Arte Público Press
University of Houston
4902 Gulf Fwy, Bldg 19, Rm 100
Houston, Texas 77204-2004

Cover design by Mora Design

(Asistencia de Christopher Travis Miller)

This book makes use of images and definitions developed by the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for educational purposes and the
image on page (84 english) (87 español) of the International Space Station
(http://www.supercoloring.com/coloring-pages/iss-international-space-station)
held under public license (Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0), we gratefully
acknowledge their support.

Names: Hernández, José M., 1962- author. | Hernández, José M., 1962- From
Farmworker to astronaut. | Hernández, José M., 1962- From Farmworker to
astronaut. Spanish.
Title: From farmworker to astronaut : my path to the stars = De campesino a
astronauta : mi viaje a las estrellas / José M. Hernández. Other titles: De
campesino a astronauta
Description: Houston : Arte Público Press, 2019. | Audience: Ages 10-15 |
Audience: Grades 7-9 | English and Spanish. | Summary: “Ten-year-old José M.
Hernández watched the Apollo 17 moonwalks on his family’s black and white
television in 1972 and knew what he wanted to be when he grew up: an
astronaut. Later that night he told his father and was surprised when his dad
said, “You can do this, m’ijo!” Mr. Hernández told his son that if he really wanted
to become an astronaut, he would need to follow a simple, five-ingredient recipe
to succeed: 1) decide what you want, 2) recognize how far you are from your
goal, 3) draw a road map to get there, 4) prepare yourself with a good
education and 5) develop a good work ethic, always giving more than required.
In the years to come, José would follow this recipe as he obtained
undergraduate and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. Adding his own
ingredient, perseverance, he applied to NASA’s astronaut program eleven times-
and was rejected each time! Finally, in 2004, he was selected to be part of the
19th class of US Astronauts. He achieved his dream in 2009 when he served as
 the flight engineer on the Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-128 fourteen-day
mission to the International Space Station. In From Farmworker to Astronaut,
José M. Hernández recollects his parallel journeys, juxtaposing memories of his
mission to the space station and childhood aspirations to reach the stars. His
story is sure to motivate kids to set goals and reach for their own dreams’—
Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019028873 (print) | LCCN 2019028874 (ebook) | ISBN
9781558858688 (paperback) | ISBN 9781518505430 (ePub) | ISBN
9781518505447 (Kindle edition) | ISBN 9781518505454 (Adobe PDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Hernández, José M., 1962—Juvenile literature. | Astronauts—
United States— Biography—Juvenile literature. | Hispanic American astronauts—
Biography—Juvenile literature. | Migrant agricultural laborers—California—
Biography—Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC TL789.85.H469 A3 2019b (print) | LCC TL789.85.H469 (ebook)
| DDC 629.450092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028873
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028874

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

From Farmworker to Astronaut: My Path to the Stars

© 2019 by José M. Hernández

Printed in the United States of America

Versa Press, Inc., East Peoria, IL
September 2019–October 2019
54321
This is dedicated to all who dare to dream big and want to make
their dream a reality. I wrote this book in the hope that it helps
readers reach for their own stars.
 Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Author’s Note

Chapter 1
Getting Ready to Launch

Chapter 2
L Minus 9-Minutes and Holding

Chapter 3
A Teacher’s Visit

Chapter 4
My Father’s Recipe

Chapter 5
Third Time’s a Charm: The Launch

Chapter 6
Staying Focused

Chapter 7
Following the Roadmap

Chapter 8
Never Giving Up

Chapter 9
Getting So Close
Chapter 10
Getting the Call

Chapter 11
The Training Begins

Chapter 12
Coming Home

Afterword
Glossary
Photos
 Acknowledgements

One rarely accomplishes worthwhile goals in life by oneself. I

certainly had a lot of help and encouragement to reach for the stars
on my journey to becoming an astronaut. I would like to start by
dedicating this book to the unsung heroes of America, our teachers.
I hope they remember my story the moment they doubt whether
their efforts make a difference, for if not for the likes of my second-
grade teacher, Ms. Young, who convinced my father to set roots here
in Stockton, California, I doubt I would have reached my goal of
becoming an astronaut. Similarly, I acknowledge my middle school
and high school teachers; Mr. Dave Ellis, Ms. Silvia Bello and Mr.
Salvador Zendejas, who went above and beyond the call of duty in
their teaching efforts; my undergraduate physics professor at the
University of the Pacific, Dr. Andrés Rodríguez, who taught me to
have self-confidence and always advised me not to psych myself out.
I thank my older siblings, Sal, Lety and Gil, who always tutored and
guided me through school. My mother for her nurturing yet firm
style that kept us academically on track. She always kept the family
together regardless of the crisis we faced—believe me, we faced
many. I would also like to thank my lovely wife, Adelita, for believing
in me and not letting me give up on my dream. To my kids: Julio,
Karina, Vanessa, Marisol and Antonio, for making my job of being a
good father look easy. To my boss and mentor at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, Clint Logan, who not only taught me
how to be a good engineer and manager, but also how to be an
effective leader. To my daughter, Marisol, for her insightful advice
and edits on this book and, finally, to Pops, whose recipe for success
is the focus of this book.
 Author’s Note

This book follows two parallel journeys; from liftoff to landing at

NASA Kennedy Space Center, and from my childhood to my lifetime
of learning as an engineer, astronaut, father and son. This approach
allows the reader, through the eyes of this flight engineer, to not
only experience a fourteen-day journey to the International Space
Station aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery but also and perhaps
more importantly, to understand my journey to becoming an
astronaut. The attempt is to encourage the reader to dream big,
much like my father did with me when I, as a ten-year-old, shared
with him my desire to become an astronaut and to show the reader
the tools that are necessary to make that dream a reality. I
accomplish this by sharing how I used my father’s five-ingredient
recipe for success, to which I add a sixth ingredient, and how I
discovered that there are three stages to reaching a goal. Though
the book may seem like an autobiography, it is an incomplete one as
I only include the parts relevant to the recipe and the three stages
to reaching a goal. It is my hope that the recipe and the three
stages are tools than can be used by the reader to turn their own
dream into a reality.
 FROM
FARMWORKER
TO
ASTRONAUT
MY PATH TO THE STARS
 CHAPTER 1
Getting Ready to Launch

We were scheduled to launch on Tuesday, August 25, 2009, at

1:25 am aboard Space Shuttle Discovery for what was to be a
thirteen-day mission to the International Space Station. There is
usually a crew of seven astronauts on a space shuttle mission, three
in the middeck and four in the flight deck (the section that’s called a
cockpit on a plane). The three astronauts in the middeck are
basically sacks of potatoes during the first eight and a half minutes
of powered space flight because they don’t have any flight operation
responsibilities. However, once they are in space they have the best
job of all. They are the ones who perform the extra-vehicular
activities (EVA’s), better known as spacewalks.
I was part of the flight deck crew and served as the engineer, also
known as Mission Specialist 2 (MS-2). I had the best seat in the
house during both the launch and the landing operations because I
sat in the middle, behind the commander and the pilot. This gave
me a panoramic view of the outside and of all the displays that both
the commander and the pilot utilized during launch and landing. Of
course, we were all very busy during launch and landing operations.
 The final two weeks of training for our mission took us right into
quarantine, a period of isolation that prevents astronauts from
getting sick in space. We started our quarantine at Johnson Space
Center in Houston, Texas. After the first two weeks of quarantine we
flew NASA T-38 jets from Ellington Field in Houston to the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida, and continued our quarantine in the crew
quarters there.
Before landing at Kennedy, we did a flyby of the launch pad
complex, where we were able to see Space Shuttle Discovery in its
vertical launch position. Discovery was attached to a large, orange
external tank and two solid white rocket boosters. The large, orange
tank was made up of two smaller tanks, one containing more than
395,000 gallons of cryogenic (super-chilled) liquid hydrogen fuel and
the other with more than 146,000 gallons of super-chilled liquid
oxygen that served as an oxidizer and allowed the burning fuel to
combust. At liftoff, these tanks would feed the three main shuttle
engines at a combined rate of almost 65,000 gallons per minute.
The space shuttle would need the engines’ 37-million horsepower to
lift off and to make our journey to the International Space Station.
 The station travels in a set path around the earth called an orbit,
just like the moon. These objects in orbit are called satellites.
Without gravity, an Earth-orbiting satellite would go off into space.
Like a baseball hit by a bat, the satellite has a tendency to move in a
straight line, but the tug of gravity is always pulling it back. This
effect of gravity is what makes the space station and the moon
travel in an orbit. Our mission was to not only travel beyond the
Earth’s atmosphere and enter orbit, but to navigate to the
International Space Station and dock there.
 Seeing the shuttle in its upright position and fully stacked with the
tank and solid rocket boosters was so exciting. Every time I saw the
launch pad and the shuttle, I was impressed by its size. The pad was
a quarter mile square and the steel structure the shuttle launched
from measured almost two hundred feet in the air. In less than a
week, this would be our ride into space! I saw the orbiter access
arm that we would use to enter the shuttle and the Emergency
Egress Slidewire Baskets. The sets of seven baskets were designed
to provide the flight and the closeout crews a quick exit off the
launch pad in the event of an emergency.
Ever since a fire in the cockpit killed three astronauts before liftoff
during the Apollo 1 mission in 1967, NASA has taken launch safety
very seriously. We had practiced this during our three-day launch
pad escape training exercises. When the baskets were released, they
descended quickly down a 1,200-foot slide wire away from the
launch pad, taking us to the safety of a reinforced bunker.
While we were in quarantine, anyone who needed to meet with
us, including our spouses, had to be checked by a flight surgeon to
ensure they were completely healthy. During the quarantine period,
we continued to train to stay proficient and confident.
Although our launch date was Tuesday, August 25, 2009, we
knew that mostly everything would occur on the day before:
Monday, August 24. This was because the actual launch time was to
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