Jose Hernandez

José, a former migrant farmworker was selected by NASA as a member of their 19th class of astronauts in 2004. He flew as the flight engineer in the 2009 14-­‐day STS-­‐128 mission aboard Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. José worked at NASA as the Branch Chief of the Materials and Processes Branch. There he oversaw activities in the areas of materials and processes, fracture control, nondestructive evaluation, failure analysis, and Nano materials research. His branch was instrumental in the investigation to help find the root cause of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident and reporting to the President’s Columbia Accident Investigation Board.