Jose Hernandez scheduled to go on his first space mission in August

Jose Hernandez, an astronaut who grew up as a farm worker in Lodi and Stockton, is scheduled to embark on his first space flight on Aug. 18.

He was scheduled to lift off on the space shuttle Discovery on Aug. 7, his 47th birthday, but his flight was postponed due to a hydrogen leak in another shuttle, the Endeavor, which will lift off in July.

Jose Hernandez

Hernandez will be part of a seven-member crew, three of whom will be space walking. One crew member will go to the International Space Station, and an astronaut at the station will join Hernandez's crew.

Hernandez and his three siblings succeeded in life without understanding English for several years, as his parents, Salvador and Julia Hernandez, picked crops in the Lodi area in the 1960s and '70s. The family grew up mostly in east Stockton, but also lived on Coral Post Road, a rural area in southeast Lodi. His parents still live there. He lives in Houston with his wife, Adela, and their five children.

Hernandez, relaxing at his home on Sunday afternoon watching the USA-Brazil soccer game, talked to News-Sentinel staff writer Ross Farrow by phone about his upcoming space flight.

Q: Has it sunk in that you're really going to go up in space?

A: We train and we work hard, so you start getting used to the idea. Once I'm sitting down in the shuttle, I think it will finally sink in.

Q: What will your role be?

A: I am a robotics operator, and I'm in charge of dressing the astronauts up and making sure space suits are working. Seven us are on crew.

Q: Are you nervous?

A: No. There's hardly any time to think about it. It's more like studying for a final. I want to take the final now because I'm ready. Let's do it.

Q: What kind of food will you eat?

A: Freeze-dried food, kind of like camping food. We'll have casseroles, meat, rice, a bunch of different kind of food. We have more of an oven where you keep things up. You push the hot-water button. The dietitians come up with proper amount of calories in our food. One day, we rated 100 different kinds of foods to see what we liked.

Q: Are roller coasters really boring now, compared to all the launch and space training?

A: No, you still feel the effects of roller coasters. They're still fun.

Q: When do you head for Cape Canaveral, Fla., to prepare for liftoff?

A: About four days before the launch. We go into quarantine about seven days before the launch to make sure we don't catch any bugs or get sick.

Q: Will come home to visit in San Joaquin County anytime soon?

A: I hope to be back in town in October.

Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.

Jose Hernandez at a glance

Born: Aug. 7, 1962, in French Camp.
Education: 1980 graduate of Franklin High School in Stockton; 1985 graduate of University of the Pacific with a degree in electrical engineering; master's degree in electrical and computer engineering in 1986 at University of California, Santa Barbara.
Pre-NASA employment: Helped develop a full-field digital mammography imaging system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he worked from 1987 to 2001. Also worked with U.S. Department of Energy, where he was part of a negotiating team with Russia to dispose of nuclear material after the U.S.S.R. fell. Going to Russia 20 times in a four-year period, he helped ensure that Soviet materials were not sold on the black market.
Aerospace career: Joined NASA in 2001 and was selected for the space program in 2004 as an astronaut-candidate. Was named a full-fledged astronaut in 2006 and learned in 2008 of his selection for the Discovery space shuttle. Discovery is due to lift off on Aug. 18.
Source: Jose Hernandez, NASA

Jose Hernandez heads foundation

Jose Hernandez helped form a nonprofit organization, Reaching for the Stars, in December 2005 to provide scholarships for public and private school students in San Joaquin County with an interest in science, technology, engineering and math.

Hernandez said he has stopped overseeing day-to-day operations of the foundation, although his sister, Leticia Corona, serves on the organization's board of directors.

For more information, visit www.astrojh.com.

Source: Reaching for the Stars

Reader Feedback

Lodian wrote on Jul 6, 2009 11:10 PM:

" Way to go, Mr. Hernandez! Lodi is so very proud! "

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