Jose M. Hernandez

Who is Jose M. Hernandez?

José Moreno Hernández, is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut.

Hernández was born in French Camp, California, but calls Stockton, California, his hometown. His family is from La Piedad, Michoacán, with indigenous Purépecha roots. In an August 25, 2009 conversation with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, Hernández stated that as a child, he lived half the year in La Piedad and half in the United States. As a child, Hernández worked alongside his family and other farmworkers throughout the fields of California, harvesting crops and moving from one town to another. He attended many schools and didn't learn to speak English until he was 12. Hernández was assigned to the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-128. He also served as chief of the Materials and Processes branch of Johnson Space Center. Hernández previously developed equipment for full-field digital mammography at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Hernández left NASA in 2011.

In October 2011, Hernández announced that, at the urging of President Barack Obama, he would run as a Democrat for California's newly redrawn 10th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the national elections of 2012 he faced freshman incumbent Representative Jeff Denham in a race that was considered competitive.