Astronaut Jose Hernandez is going to make his first trip to the space. Next week, he will be among the astronauts when Discovery, the shuttle of NASA will launched towards the International Space Station. It would be a great achievement for the man who spent his childhood in picking cucumbers and strawberries as he belongs to a farming family, that migrated from Mexico to America. According to reports regarding the shuttle’s launching time, on Tuesday the liftoff is set for 1:36 a.m. EDT and it would be 13 days mission.

In a NASA interview Hernandez said,

“I come from a very humble family and what I would call a typical migrant farm working family,”

About his upcoming flight he is very excited and he describes it as,

“the culmination of a dream, you know, in terms of what I’ve been working towards with the support of my family and my parents, and to me it’s something that’s going to be incredible.”

It is also a great news for Mexico and Hernandez’s family that lives in the state of Michoacán also hails him. According to the Associated Press, the Mexican President Felipe Calderon congratulate him for his upcoming mission and also invited him on dinner as he came on Earth after accomplishing his mission. The invitation was accepted by Hernandez and he was also offered by the Mexican President to serve in a future Mexican space agency as an advisor.

Jose Hernandez

Jose Hernandez