Live Online Chat with Astronaut José Hernández

Mexican-American engineer and NASA Astronaut José Hernández has a life story of perseverance. 18:00-19:00 EDT | 22:00-23:00 UTC | 12:00-13:00 HST. Born in 1962 to migrant farmworker parents, he spent his early years working in the fields and learned English at age 12. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of the Pacific and a Master of Science in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Hernández built a career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he contributed to developing one of the first full-field digital mammography imaging systems, aiding in the early detection of breast cancer. After several setbacks, he was selected as a NASA Astronaut in 2004 and flew on Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-128) in 2009.

Following his time at NASA, Hernández became an entrepreneur and public figure, inspiring others through his journey from farmworker to space traveler—later chronicled in his memoir and the 2023 film A Million Miles Away.

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