Today, the spaceship Discovery is scheduled to launch into space for mission number STS-128. A part of her crew will be Astronaut Jose Hernandez. Making his first trip into outer space, Astronaut Hernandez embodies what is possible in the United States as he was born in the United States to migrant workers. He too worked in the fields growing up and he states that, “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.”
A senior in high school at the time, Astronaut Hernandez pushed himself to succeed academically and has succeeded in becoming another inspiring astronaut.
Congratulations to Astronaut Hernandez and to his family.