- Content: A MILLION MILES AWAY’s Jose Hernandez Went to Space to See God
By Movieguide® Contributor
Jose Hernandez, whose father had a third-grade education, explained how he became an astronaut and how going to space strengthened his faith.
“The stars always attracted me. When I was a kid, STAR TRK, the first run series, was coming on, with Captain Kirk. Then when we would go out in the field, we would go away from the pollution of light of the city. It was still dark and man you can see constellations up above,” Hernandez, who inspired the movie A MILLION MILES AWAY, told CBN.
“When I was a 10-years old, I see on the black and white TV, the very last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, Gene Cernan, walking on the moon. That is when it hit me. I was like, ‘I want to be like that guy. I want to go to outer space,’” he continued. “I told my dad, and my dad did something incredible. He only has a third-grade education, but he had the wisdom to empower me to believe it because he told me, ‘I think you can do it.’ As a 10-year-old, I never looked back. As I grew up, I just added perseverance.”
Through years of hard work, Hernandez was able to qualify for the astronaut program and became one of two Latinos ever sent on a shuttle mission. Despite being steeped in science all throughout his life, the astronaut holds a strong Christian faith, something that he believes has been only strengthened by his career.
“A lot of people always argue with me and say, ‘Isn’t that a contradiction in life, science and religion?’ And I say no. Quite the contrary,” Hernandez explained. “Science explains how things work. Religion explains why things happen. Not how things happen, but why they happen. And so it fills you spiritually as to why things happen. So, I think they go hand in hand.”
“[While in space] I had two windows: one with a gorgeous view of our planet, and another one to the universe,” he told AARP last October. “I looked at the universe, and it looked so perfectly laid out that I thought, ‘This can’t be a coincidence.’ So there is in fact a force that we aren’t familiar with, and that’s religion. That’s God.”
Hernandez’s incredible journey of hard work and perseverance has now been recorded for future generations through a Prime Video-produced movie A MILLION MILES AWAY. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
A MILLION MILES AWAY is an incredibly inspirational, wholesome movie for all ages. It takes a down-to-earth approach to this story of celestial ambition. Jose is a truly relatable character who will inspire viewers to realize their dreams can be achieved through hard work. A MILLION MILES AWAY has a great message for children and teenagers. The fact that the movie is filled with Christian faith and has a complete absence of offensive language makes it terrific viewing for families.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Jose Hernández, the inspiration for Amazon’s recent hit A MILLION MILES AWAY, shared how his family and faith helped him rise from an immigrant worker to a NASA astronaut.
His dream to be an astronaut began with Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon.
“I was 10 at the time, and I saw the last astronaut to walk on the moon. I was watching [the TV] and then would go outside and look at the moon, and then go back inside to listen to Walter Cronkite’s explanations,” he told AARP. “That was the moment that fueled my determination, and I said: ‘This is it. I want to be an astronaut.’”
Growing up in a migrant worker family, Hernández often traveled between Mexico and America as the farming cycle demanded. He jumped from one school to another and didn’t even learn to speak English until he turned 12.
However, Hernández remained focused on his vision to join NASA, and with the support of God and his family, he became an engineer and nuclear scientist.
- Content: +4Share:
- Content: +1