Jose M. Hernandez

José Hernández is the kind of story I never get tired of telling. A Mexican-American kid with farmworker roots in California who was reportedly rejected by NASA eleven times before finally being accepted, and then actually flew aboard the Space Shuttle in 2009. That persistence moves me more than any single achievement. Engineer, astronaut, businessman, and now a Regent of the University of California, he keeps climbing while staying grounded in where he came from. What I respect is not just the talent but the refusal to quit, a reminder that the hardest part of any dream is simply not letting go.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Jose M. Hernandez

Name (Japanese)

ホセ・ヘルナンデス

Reading

ほせ・へるなんです

Born

August 7, 1962 (age 64)

Origin

French Camp, California, United States

Occupation

astronaut / engineer / businessperson

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Tiger

High school

Franklin High School

University

University of the Pacific

Awards & achievements

• 2013 Ohtli Award

• Xhttps://x.com/Astro_Jose
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9%20M.%20Hern%C3%A1ndez
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9B%E3%82%BB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A2%E3%83%AC%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BB%E3%83%98%E3%83%AB%E3%83%8A%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%82%B9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q716333

Tags

• California
• astronaut
• engineer
• businessperson

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.