{"id":13742,"date":"2023-10-04T10:56:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T14:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=13742"},"modified":"2023-10-04T10:56:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T14:56:37","slug":"retired-astronaut-jose-hernandez-shares-the-story-of-how-god-called-him-to-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/10\/retired-astronaut-jose-hernandez-shares-the-story-of-how-god-called-him-to-space.html","title":{"rendered":"Retired Astronaut Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez Shares the Story of How God Called Him to Space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"jose<\/a>
The Weather Channel\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez’s story is believed to be among the most incredible in modern history. A migrant farmworker, he felt God calling him to become a NASA astronaut when he was 10 years old. Unfortunately, NASA rejected him from its program 11 times before choosing him for its astronaut class in 2004. In 2009, Hern\u00e1ndez made history aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, the first shuttle mission to send two Latino astronauts into space.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Christian Post, the 61-year-old said, “I attribute my success to pure naivete. At 10 years old, in 1972, I remember watching our rabbit-ear TV, and I saw astronaut Gene Cernan walk on the surface of the moon while Walter Cronkite narrated the moonwalk. And I told myself, ‘I want to be an astronaut.’ I felt a clear calling from God.” Despite his success, Hern\u00e1ndez said his story isn’t really about him; it’s about the support circle surrounding him, backing his dream, including his migrant farmworker parents, his second-grade teacher, Miss Young, and his wife, Adela.<\/p>\n

He said, “My journey isn’t about one individual’s quest to turn a dream into reality. It’s about my teacher who went to my house to convince my parents to stay in one place;\u00a0it’s about my wife, who taught me perseverance and propped me up. It’s about my father, who only had a third-grade education but had the wisdom to give me a powerful, five-ingredient recipe when I told him I wanted to be an astronaut. He said: Find your purpose in life; recognize how far you are; draw a roadmap; if you don’t know how, learn, and when you think you’ve made it, you probably have to work harder.”<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s story is told in the new Amazon Prime movie \u201cA Million Miles Away,\u201d starring Michael Pe\u00f1a, Rosa Salazar and Julio C\u00e9sar Cedillo. The film is directed by Alejandra Marquez and is based on Hern\u00e1ndez’s 2012 memoir,\u00a0Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut<\/em>. The film premiered on Amazon Prime on Sept. 15 in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and has remained at the No. 1 spot.<\/p>\n