Jose Hernandez: Hispanic Astronaut
José Hernández a migrant farmworker turned NASA astronaut and author inspires audiences with resilience, purpose, and a “reach for your stars” mindset.
Quick Facts:
- Highlights:
- First Mexican-American migrant farmworker to travel to space
- NASA astronaut, engineer, and co-inventor of digital mammography imaging technology
- Author of Reaching for the Stars and subject of Amazon Prime’s A Million Miles Away
- International keynote speaker on perseverance, leadership, and STEM education
- Founder and CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering, promoting innovation and inclusion
- Formats: Keynote (35–60 min), fireside chat, panels, or university commencement speeches
- Audiences: Students, educators, corporations, nonprofits, STEM & engineering communities, diversity & inclusion forums
- Outcomes:
- Inspire attendees to overcome fear, self-doubt, and systemic barriers
- Equip participants with “recipe for success” drawn from real-world persistence
- Motivate action toward purpose, innovation, and community impact
- Travels from: Stockton, CA
- **Fee range: $10,001 - $20,000
Talent Services
Keynote Topics:
REACHING FOR YOUR OWN STARS: A RECIPE TO SUCCEED IN LIFE
Jose Hernandez’s talk is an effective motivational talk where individuals leave so inspired, they re-evaluate and upgrade their personal and professional goals in life. This is accomplished by empowering attendees through his anecdotal stories of hard work and perseverance. He shares a simple yet effective recipe that serves as an effective tool in the empowerment process.
Reaching your full potential
Dare to dream big when you are willing to work hard for it
Jose shares his 6 ingredient recipe to success that lead him to his goal of becoming an Astronaut
His conference leads to re-evaluation and upgrading of the audience’s goal
LEADERSHIP
Jose discusses how he developed his leadership and communication skills both as a social advocate in various community-based organizations and through experiences as he moved up through middle/senior management positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
This is a sensitivity training course where Jose points out that everyone has internal biases. Acknowledging and managing these biases not only allows us to treat everyone equally, but in an inclusive manner. In doing so, we can focus on individualistic needs.
In a diverse workplace, differences exist, and people require support in different ways. Equity asks us to acknowledge that everyone has different needs, experiences, and opportunities.
IMPOSTER SYNDROME: HOW TO THRIVE IN TODAY'S CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT
This talks centers around the subject of common to high achievers, people who break barriers and/or are “first in their family to achieve.” These achievements cause individuals to doubt their abilities to the point they feel like a fraud.
It disproportionately affects people who break barriers and are one of the first in their families to have college graduate careers.
They typically find it difficult to accept their accomplishments and many questions whether they’re deserving of recognition and accolades. Jose not only talks about the subject, but also discuss methods he used to overcome such feelings.
FROM MIGRANT FARMWORKER TO NASA ASTRONAUT
This talk centers around the importance of staying on the leading edge of technology and how it affects our everyday lives. It introduces the concept of disruptive technologies, how to identify and take advantage of them.
Talent Short Bio
José M. Hernández is a celebrated engineer, NASA astronaut, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker who transformed humble beginnings into extraordinary achievement. Born to a migrant farming family, he didn’t learn English until age 12 and spent his youth moving seasonally across California fields.
Refusing to give up, he built a career in engineering, co-developed critical medical imaging systems, and joined NASA after multiple rejections. In 2009, José served on the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-128) as a mission specialist. His story was dramatized in the Amazon Prime film A Million Miles Away. Today, he leads Tierra Luna Engineering, advises STEM and inclusion initiatives, and speaks internationally on leadership, perseverance, and innovation.
Read Full Bio
NASA engineer Jose Hernandez wanted to fly in space ever since he heard that the first Hispanic-American had been chosen to travel into space.
“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,” says Hernandez, who was a senior in high school at the time.
“I was already interested in science and engineering,” Jose Hernandez remembers, “but that was the moment I said, ‘I want to fly in space.’ And that’s something I’ve been striving for each day since then.” And now that hard work has paid off.
Jose Hernandez was selected to begin training as a mission specialist as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class.
“Some kids might think it would be fun to travel like that,” Hernandez laughs, “but we had to work. It wasn’t a vacation.”
This system has proven useful for detecting breast cancer at an earlier stage than present film/screen mammography techniques. Hernandez has won recognition awards for his work on this project. He has also worked in the international arena where he represented Lawrence Livermore and the U.S. Department of Energy on Russian nuclear non-proliferation issues.
During the astronaut application process, Hernandez had to meet with a review board. That’s where he came face-to-face with his original inspiration: Franklin Chang-Diaz.
“It was a strange place to find myself, being evaluated by the person who gave me the motivation to get there in the first place,” Hernandez says. “But I found that we actually had common experiences a similar upbringing, the same language issues. That built up my confidence. Any barriers that existed, he had already hurdled them.”
Hernandez smiles. “Now it’s my turn!”
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Talent Videos
“I Was Rejected 11 Times” — Former NASA Astronaut José Hernández on Boosting Dreams
In this 3-minute interview, astronaut José Hernández shares how perseverance and purpose turned 11 rejections into one of NASA’s most inspiring success stories.
Video Summary & Key Moments
In this short but deeply motivating clip, José Hernández, a former NASA astronaut and engineer, reflects on the resilience and determination that carried him from migrant farmworker roots to space. He begins by revealing that his journey to NASA was far from easy — he was rejected 11 times before finally being accepted into the astronaut program. Instead of giving up, José treated each rejection as feedback, asking himself what skills or experiences he needed to improve.
He explains how persistence, education, and self-belief became the foundation for achieving his dream. José’s message is not only about reaching space, but about cultivating an unshakable mindset that sees failure as part of the process. He urges young people and professionals alike to “keep applying, keep improving, and never give up” on their aspirations.
The segment closes with his powerful reflection: success is not about where you start but how much determination and preparation you bring to your goals. His story stands as a universal lesson in resilience, humility, and vision — showing that dreams are built through consistent effort and belief, not circumstance.
Key Moments
00:00 – 00:30: Introduction — José recalls early challenges and repeated NASA rejections
00:30 – 01:20: Turning rejection into motivation — learning, improving, and applying again
01:20 – 02:20: The mindset of perseverance — “Failure is not falling down; it’s staying down”
02:20 – 03:00: Achieving the dream — acceptance to NASA and lessons from space
03:00 – 03:29: Closing message — never stop believing in your potential
Dr. José Hernández — The First NASA Astronaut from a Mexican Migrant Family
In this 4-minute feature, Dr. José Hernández shares his extraordinary journey from working in the fields as a child to launching into space, proving that perseverance and education can overcome any barrier.
Video Summary & Key Moments
This inspirational video profiles Dr. José Hernández, who made history as the first NASA astronaut of Mexican migrant heritage. Speaking with humility and warmth, José recounts his early years traveling with his family between the U.S. and Mexico as seasonal farmworkers. Despite constant movement, language barriers, and limited resources, his parents instilled in him the values of discipline, hard work, and education — values that became the foundation for his success.
José describes how watching the Apollo 17 moon landing as a young boy sparked his dream to become an astronaut. He candidly shares that the journey was far from easy: it took 11 NASA rejections before finally being selected. Instead of viewing those rejections as failures, he saw them as lessons, taking each “no” as an opportunity to improve himself and refine his qualifications.
Throughout the video, José highlights the importance of family support, community, and persistence, crediting his parents’ “five-ingredient recipe for success”: find your goal, know how far you are, draw a roadmap, prepare yourself, and work hard toward it. His story emphasizes that dreams are achievable regardless of where one begins, as long as perseverance and preparation remain constant. The segment concludes with a reflection on representation and inspiration encouraging children from underrepresented backgrounds to believe they too can reach for the stars.
Key Moments
00:45 – 01:30: Early struggles and lessons in perseverance from his parents
01:30 – 02:40: NASA ambitions — 11 rejections and the value of persistence
02:40 – 03:40: The breakthrough — acceptance and spaceflight experience
03:40 – 04:40: Closing reflection — hope, heritage, and inspiring the next generation
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