A Million Miles Away

"I want to be an astronaut." José M. Hernández remembers saying those words at age 10 after watching Gene Cernan walk on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. It was highly unlikely that dream would come true for any child, much less one whose parents were migrant farmworkers from Mexico who picked fruits and vegetables in California. However, with guidance from his father, the support of his family, and an unwavering commitment to his Catholic faith and hard work, José eventually achieved his goal, becoming an astronaut on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2009. His story was turned into the Amazon Prime movie, A Million Miles Away, which earned a Christopher Award earlier this year.

When José told his father about his goal, his dad did not discourage him. During a Christopher Closeup interview, José recalled, "I think [my father] saw the determination of a 10-year-old kid. . . . He validated that dream by saying, 'I think you can do it,' as opposed to saying, 'This is too far of a stretch for you. Select something else.' . . . Then he said, 'If you want to reach this, follow these five simple steps . . . ..[First], determine your purpose in life. What does José want to be when he grows up? Second, recognize how far you are. Third, draw yourself a roadmap so you know how to get there. Fourth, prepare yourself according to the challenge you picked. And fifth, develop a work ethic second to none. . . . That's the recipe to succeed.' I still live by those steps."

José noted that his Catholic faith has long served as a guiding force, calling it "my refuge." He attends Mass every week with his wife, took several family religious items into space with him, and makes it a point to pray in good times as well as bad ones.

José needed both faith and guidance when he received his sixth rejection from NASA. He crumpled up the letter and threw it at the garbage can, ready to give up his dream. But the letter wound up on the floor where his wife, Adela, found it and read it. "I think that was God's divine intervention," José recalled. Adela pointed out that he would become a "bitter old man," always wondering what might have been. As she walked away, she added, "I don't know what [the other applicants] have that you don't have."

José had never thought of that question. When he began exploring the answers, he discovered that those in the astronaut program were pilots and scuba divers, so he acquired those skills. And to differentiate himself, he signed up for a nuclear nonproliferation project which took him to Siberia several times a year. "Sometimes, we have to do things we don't like in the short term to reach the end game," José said, "and that's what I decided to do. Lo and behold, on my 12th try, I got selected."

As a man of faith, José's trip to space made a major impression on his spiritual life. He said, "You make your way to the window that faces the Earth, and you see the Earth from the outside for the first time…Then, you go to the opposite window, and you see the universe. You realize . . . this is too perfect to be a coincidence, that everything is in its place, and we're just one of billions of planets . . . that God created. I said, 'There has to be a higher spirit, higher being that created all of this.' So, it only solidified my faith in my religion."

This essay is a recent "Light One Candle" column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

Background information:

The Christophers