This is a summary of the book titled “Reaching for the stars” written by Jose M Fernandez and published by Center Street in 2012. This is an inspiring story of a migrant farm worker’s son turned NASA Astronaut. As he recounts, his hardworking family kept him focused on education and his future. He calls his parents role models and put to best use their belief that he belong in the school and not the farm. He earned his engineering degrees, worked in prestigious Lawrence Livermore Labs, the US Department of Energy, and then NASA. In his journey, he had to surmount several rejections and prejudice. His heartwarming book is an illustration of American dream come true.

José Hernández, born in 1962, is inspired by his immigrant parents, Salvador and his friend, who were both undocumented migrant farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Salvador's father, Salvador, had many dreams and goals at a young age, but he never reached third grade. At 15, Salvador and his friend traveled to the United States with a friend, where they worked as undocumented migrant farmworkers. Hernández's youngest child, José M., was born in August 1962.

Hernández's father insisted that everyone in the world is the same, and he focused on his studies, learning math and watching Star Trek. His family's financial struggles led him to pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut, inspired by the first moon landing and the final Apollo mission, Apollo 17. Hernández's parents' resilience and determination inspired him to pursue his dreams and make a difference in the world.

As a poor and brown student from Mexico, he was influenced by his parents' belief in the importance of education for his future. His parents, Salvador and his wife, believed that their children should be in school rather than working in the fields. Hernández's parents made hard choices without knowing if their children would seize the opportunities available. Eventually, he entered middle school and made friends in a rough neighborhood. By 1980, he was ready to graduate and move on to university. He heard about Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz, a poor boy from Costa Rica who studied engineering at MIT and became NASA's first Latino astronaut candidate. With the help of a teacher, Hernández received a scholarship to study engineering at the University of the Pacific. He worked multiple jobs throughout college, believing education was the path to his future. Hernández applied for an internship at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which offered him a job through a program for minority students funded by the Office of Equal Opportunity.

Hernández graduated from the University of the Pacific in 1985 and began his career at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. He worked on a nuclear X-ray laser project as part of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. After the Soviet Union's end in 1991, Hernández applied to become an astronaut but was initially rejected. However, he fell in love with a woman he would marry and pursued new opportunities.

NASA selected Hernández as an astronaut after the Columbia tragedy in 2003. Hernández joined the team providing technical support for the investigation into the tragedy. NASA began selecting new astronaut candidates again in fall 2003, and Hernández was accepted after a two-year training process. Astronaut training involves acquiring new skills, such as survival underwater, co-piloting T-34C airplanes, and studying the space shuttle's systems in classrooms and simulators.

He achieved his lifelong dream of launching a space shuttle in 2009. Despite facing challenges due to weather conditions, the flight was launched without incident. Hernández installed computers, helped inspect the thermal protection system on the wings, and docked with the International Space Station (ISS). He hoped his story would inspire others to leave their own footprints and reach their own stars. After completing systems tests and preparations, Hernández's team returned to Earth, despite an extra day due to bad weather at the Kennedy Space Center. The view from space was spectacular, and on day 15, the shuttle burst through clouds at 26,000 feet, landing with the astronauts applauding.

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