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The inspirational story of former astronaut and Lawrence Livermore Lab engineer Jose Hernandez is captivating millions in the form of a feature film streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
The movie, which is based on Hernandez's 2012 autobiography titled "Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut," follows his trajectory from a young boy picking produce in the Central Valley fields with his family to becoming a NASA astronaut who traveled to space.
The film was first released on Sept. 15, coinciding with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month and just over 11 years to the day of the release of his autobiography which was published on Sept. 4, 2012. It stars actor Michael Peña playing the role of Hernandez.
Hernandez told Livermore Vine in an interview that in the years since completing his mission in space, he has done a number of speaking engagements, sharing his unique story. As more people learned of him, a buzz ensued and he started getting approached by different filmmakers interested in making a movie about his life. He turned down several offers over the years until Select Films reached out.
Select Films founder and CEO Mark Ciardi – who is also a former Major League Baseball pitcher – had a track record of producing successful motivational films including "The Rookie," "Mcfarland USA" and "Million Dollar Arm."
"All these films they'd done were all motivational and when I talked to them I said 'this is where my story belongs,'" Hernandez said.
Hernandez said that after the script was written and it came time to pitch the film, they'd shopped it around to six different studios of which four said yes. "This was unprecedented, usually you're lucky if you get one that says yes," Hernandez said.
While they had initially chosen Netflix as the platform for the film, production was stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic and after some contractual issues arose, they ultimately decided to bring the project to Amazon.
Hernandez said the process of bringing the film to life took a total of about four years but since its release, it has been well-received both nationally and internationally.
"In Amazon's own words, it far exceeded their expectations in every category," Hernandez said.
He noted that it was especially significant that the movie did well because it was released during the SAG-AFTRA strike at which time the actors in the film could not help promote it.
"That left me and the director (Alejandra Marquez) as the main promoters and we were criss-crossing the country and going to Mexico promoting the heck out of the film," Hernandez said.
The movie's success is no surprise. Hernandez's story is one of resilience and perseverance as he applied to the NASA Space Shuttle program 11 times over the course of a dozen years before finally being accepted in 2004 on the 12th try.
"It's very, very important when you pick your goal or objective, that you are enjoying the journey toward that goal because if you're not enjoying the journey, chances are you picked the wrong goal or objective for yourself," Hernandez said, adding that although his ultimate goal was to become an astronaut, he enjoyed everything he did along the way to become a better candidate for the program including becoming a pilot, a master scuba diver and working at LLNL.
"A Million Miles Away" shows that Hernandez was a stand-out student early on, excelling in math and carrying a deep curiosity about the moon and the stars while growing up in Stockton.
It also highlights the five-ingredient recipe for success his father instilled in him at a young age: decide what you want to be, realize how far you need to go, draw yourself a roadmap, get a good education and always do more than what people expect.
The film depicts how Hernandez himself became a family man, marrying his wife Adela who also grew up a migrant farm worker and raising five children together all while still pursuing his dream of going to space.
Though Hernandez wanted to become an astronaut from the age of 10, his entry into science was through engineering. Long before traversing through space, Hernandez worked for 15 years as an engineer at LLNL.
During his time at the Lab, Hernandez played a key role in several significant projects including working on an X-ray laser that would be deployed to space – part of the “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative program – and tackling a project to build the first digital mammography system for early detection of breast cancer.
He also traveled to Russia as part of the Highly Enriched Uranium purchase agreement and began learning to speak Russian, a skill he knew could help him achieve his dream at the time as future NASA missions would require Russian collaboration.
While one might think his determination to get to NASA would interfere with his work at the Lab, it actually did the opposite. The studying and various training he did to improve his chances of qualifying for the space program also helped him excel in his career at LLNL.
"Everything I was doing to make myself better as a candidate to be considered an astronaut was also making myself a better scientist engineer," Hernandez said. "While I would be extremely, highly disappointed if I had never, ever, ever got selected as an astronaut, I was OK with that because I was enjoying what I was doing," he added.
After initially being accepted into the program, about five years later on Aug. 28, 2009 Hernandez set out on a two-week mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery to bring supplies to the International Space Station.
While in space, Hernandez held the role of flight engineer, which is third in line to pilot the shuttle. He assisted on spacewalks and ISS repairs, operating the shuttle’s robotic arm, installing equipment and experiment modules, and helping dock and undock the shuttle from the space station.
Although Hernandez is no longer with NASA, he has remained very busy with a number of projects and endeavors over the years including running for congress in 2012, motivational speaking, leading his own consulting firm called Tierra Luna Engineering, serving on the Quest Science Center board of directors and even making wine with his father at their Lodi-based vineyard under his own label, Tierra Luna Cellars.
The names of his varietals, Nova Stella (sauvignon blanc), Stella Z (red zinfandel) and Cuatro Stellas (red blend) are inspired by Hernandez's view of the constellations from space. Hernandez said opening a tasting room is a future goal but his wines are currently only available to purchase online.
One of the eye-opening takeaways Hernandez also said he came away with after going to space was recognizing how thin the Earth's atmosphere is and how important it is to care and protect the environment to preserve it. While he said he doesn't consider himself an environmentalist, necessarily, he does feel it is his responsibility to share what he saw and its impact on him.
"That's what I try to warn people about is, hey, we have to be good stewards of our environment if we're to leave our planet in as good or better condition than when we arrived for our great-grandkids to enjoy, " he said.
In addition to all of his professional accomplishments, Hernandez is one of five astronauts with ties to Livermore that are featured on the "Dream Big" mural located downtown which was completed in the summer of 2022.
The film "A Million Miles Away" is available to stream with a subscription to Amazon Prime Video.
