Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard welcomed Astronaut Jose Hernandez to Downey’s Columbia Memorial Space Center and thanked him for accepting her invitation to speaks to students throughout her congressional district. After the congresswoman introduced Astronaut Hernandez to the crowd, he talked about his background and what he experienced in space. He also answered questions from students in the audience.
Earlier in the day, he also shared his experiences with students at Nimitz Middle School in Huntington Park and Bellflower Middle School in the 34th Congressional District.
Mr. Hernandez is the 13th astronaut of Latino descent to travel into space. He is also the first astronaut to tweet from space in English and Spanish.
Raised in Stockton, California, his parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico with only a third grade education. Beginning at age 6, he spent months on end working in the fields with his family as they followed the crops throughout California. He did not learn to speak English until he was 12 years old, but he learned early in life he had an interest in math and science.
Following his dream to be an astronaut, he studied hard and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. With the help of a full scholarship, he later attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and earned a Masters degree also in Electrical Engineering.
After receiving his Masters degree, Astronaut Hernandez worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for thirteen years. While there, he co-developed an X-ray film imaging analysis technique which enables doctors to make earlier and improved diagnoses of breast cancer.
In 2001, NASA hired him as an engineer. As he moved up the ranks of the space agency he never gave up his dream of becoming an astronaut. Finally, in 2004 after 12 year of trying, he was selected as an Astronaut Candidate, becoming one of only 13 Latinos ever to participate in the NASA Career Astronaut Program.
Following two years of training, he received his first assignment supporting launch and landing preparations at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. His dream to go into space came true at the age 47 when he took his first mission into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery. During his mission to the International Space Station, he served as the flight engineer, assisting in the take-off and landing of the Discovery Shuttle.
During his time in space, he and the crew conducted three space walks and traveled over 5.7 million miles in 332 hours and 53 minutes before returning to earth at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Located on a 13-acre parcel of the former NASA Downey site, the 20,000-square-foot the Columbia Memorial Space Center honors the memory of the Columbia Space Shuttle astronauts who died in service to their country on February 1, 2003. The center is also a tribute to the many people who worked in the aviation and aerospace industry in Downey over seven decades. Through its historical displays and interactive exhibits, the center is designed to inspire a new generation of space scientists and explorers. A longtime advocate of the center, the congresswoman authored the legislation to name the center as a memorial to the fallen astronauts and secured $1.7 million in federal funding toward the project.
Pictured in the photo from left to right: U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard; Downey Councilman Mario Guerra; Astronaut Jose Hernandez; Mayor Pro Tem Luis Marquez; and Mayor Anne Marie Bayer.
