“It only takes 8 1/2 minutes to go to space. Zero to 17,5000 miles an hour in 8 ½ minutes,” astronaut and UC Santa Barbara alum José Hernández said.

To open his lecture at Campbell Hall on April 29, Hernández asked the audience to imagine the exhilaration of finally accomplishing his dream of flying into space.

“Now you’re about 280 miles above the ground, going around the world once every 90 minutes,” Hernández continued. “I like to tell this story at the beginning because it’s nice to look at what it’s like to be where you really want to be.” 

Hernández revealed that despite setting his sights on becoming an astronaut at age 10, he had to persevere through a number of obstacles, including 11 rejections from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to finally achieve his goal. 

Growing up, Hernández’s family was constantly moving around Southern California and La Piedad, Mexico in order to follow agricultural work. Hernández explained how during the course of a year, his family “started in Ontario/Chino, California picking strawberries for two months … then [would] move to Salinas, California and picked more strawberries for two months … then go to Stockton, California for five months,” picking a variety of fruits and vegetables, before finally settling in Mexico for the remaining three months of the year.

While Hernández reminisced about how he appreciated his time spent in Mexico enjoying his grandmother’s hot chocolate, he revealed how the constant moving from one place to the next threatened his education, explaining, “here I am for five months [in Stockton], but guess what? My dad wakes up one morning in November and says, ‘Kids, we’re going to Mexico for three months; get three months’ worth of homework from your teacher.’” 

It was the home visit of his second grade teacher Ms. Young, who explained to his parents the importance of keeping Hernández in one school district, that allowed him to grow deep roots in Stockton, California. According to Hernández, this conversation was a large factor in his ability to one day achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut. 

While Hernández would still work in the agricultural fields on weekends and seven days a week during the summer while living in Stockton, he found time to excitedly watch as Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission, was televised. Hernández explained how it was at this moment, at “10 years old, I knew I wanted to be an astronaut.” 

Filled with excitement, Hernández said he eagerly told his dad about his dream to become an astronaut. As he had expected his father to meet him with disapproval, he was happy to hear that his father proposed  “the simple five-ingredient recipe” to achieve his goal.

“First, you determine your purpose in life.” As 10-year old Hernández had just discovered he wanted to be an astronaut, the first ingredient seemed to have been fulfilled. 

“‘Second, he said, ‘recognize how far you are from that goal,’” to which Hernández replied with “Dad, we live in the worst part of Stockton, we can’t be any further than this.’’

“Third, you got to draw a road map from where you know you’re at to where you want to go,” his father told him. 

“Fourth, you got to prepare yourself according to the challenge you picked,” his father emphasized, understanding the great undertaking required to become an astronaut.

Finally, Hernández’s father advised him to “always do more than what people expect of you.” 

Throughout Hernández’s career, he most certainly fulfilled this last “ingredient” through time spent studying engineering, where he innovatively designed new technologies while working for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. While working for this laboratory, he co-developed the first full field digital mammography system for the earlier detection of breast cancer, which has “saved thousands of lives,” notably what Hernández considers his “greatest achievement.” 

However, despite Hernández’s impressive work as an engineer, he was faced with rejection after rejection in becoming an astronaut through the continuous application cycles offered by NASA. Hernández revealed that he received “11 rejection letters from NASA,” and it wasn’t until his 12th time applying that he was invited to be part of the 19th class of NASA astronauts in 2004. 

According to Hernández, it was exactly his mission to do more than what people expected of him that separated him from the 12,000+ applicants he was competing against. Hernández looked into what NASA astronaut candidates had that he didn’t, ultimately leading him to become scuba certified, earn his flight license and volunteer for a position requiring him to live in Russia for part of the year in an effort to become fluent in Russian. 

Finally, after years of relentless dedication to his dream, Hernández said he was invited to join NASA as an astronaut candidate, where he was met with another endless stream of challenges during his nonstop training in preparation for his trip to space. Hernández revealed that he was required to train flying a T-38 jet, pursue water and cold temperature training and complete underwater simulation runs. He even had to complete wilderness survival training — where he was given a map with two Xs and a compass, testing his ability to survive, navigation skills, knowledge of plants and root systems and ability to find water sources. 

“This is where I found out, and I kid you not, that squirrel tastes a lot like chicken,” Hernández said. 

Finally, after years of intense training, Hernández served as a mission specialist on the Discovery space shuttle’s STS-128 mission in 2009 — its 37th mission to space.  

After a 13-day journey in space, Hernández was set to land in Florida. However, Hernández said that because the weather was bad in Florida, they landed in a second site, which was Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. To Hernández, he “found [this second landing site] to be poetic justice timing. Why? Because it was about 80 miles from where I used to pick strawberries.” 

Hernández’s journey to reach his goal to reach the stars is a momentous success story, and he remains dedicated to helping other kids like him through his foundation Reaching for the Stars, which teaches students in the California Central Valley about how to pursue a career in S.T.E.M. Hernández’s legacy will continue to live on in the valley, and here at UCSB as a proud alum. 

A version of this article appeared on p.10 of the May. 8, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.