José M. Hernández

Hernández filed papers to challenge incumbent Democratic Representative Josh Harder in the 9th district in 2022, but ultimately did not run.

Hernández is married to his wife, Adela and has five children, Julio, Karina, Vanessa, Marisol, and Antonio. For several years, his wife ran a Mexican restaurant just outside the Johnson Space Center gates, called Tierra Luna Grill, which is Spanish for Earth Moon Grill. In 2014, Hernández joined the Board of Directors for the nonprofit humanitarian space agency, SpaceUnited. Hernández owns a 20 acre vineyard near Lodi, California, and in 2021 began bottling wine under the Tierra Luna Cellars label.

In March 2012, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, a law firm with links to the California Republican Party, sued in Sacramento County Superior Court to block Hernández from describing himself as an "astronaut/scientist/engineer" on the June ballot. The lawsuit stated that "astronaut is not a title one carries for life"; the election code requires the description be accurate for the previous calendar year. "Allowing a candidate to use the profession of 'astronaut' when he hasn't served in that profession recently is akin to allowing someone to use a title of 'sailor' when they no longer own or operate a ship," said Jennifer Kerns, a California Republican Party spokeswoman. On March 29, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled that Hernández could be described as an astronaut on the June 5 primary ballot.

Hernández received the endorsement of Democracy for America, and was selected as one of the Dean Dozen supported in 2012. In November 2012, Hernández lost to the incumbent, Congressman Jeff Denham, in the General Election for California's new 10th District. Hernández finished in the polls with 46 percent of the vote.

Since his 2012 loss, Hernández has made multiple public statements regarding potential future campaigns. In March 2016, Hernández said, "I ran for Congress in 2012 but I lost in a close race. Now I'm thinking about making a comeback, maybe in 2018."

In October 2011, Hernández, at the urging of President Barack Obama, ran for Congress as a Democrat in California's newly redrawn 10th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won the Democratic nomination, but lost the 2012 general election to freshman incumbent Representative Jeff Denham.

Hernández announced at Pacific Union College on September 29, 2011, that at the urging of President Barack Obama he was considering a run for the U.S. House of Representatives and would announce his decision on October 11, 2011. He announced his candidacy as promised on October 11 via Twitter by linking to his campaign website. Hernández made his first public campaign appearance on January 14, 2012, at a Democratic Candidate Forum in Tracy at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites.

On the campaign trail, Hernández was criticized for having a 2010 personal tax lien imposed by the IRS and paid in 2012. Hernández attacked his opponent, Denham, for his tax liens imposed against his business in 2003 and paid in 2003.

Hernández was born in French Camp, California, but calls Stockton, California, his hometown. His family is from La Piedad, Michoacán, Mexico, with indigenous Purépecha roots. In an August 25, 2009, conversation with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, Hernández stated that as a child, he lived half the year in La Piedad and half in the United States. As a child, Hernández worked alongside his family and other farmworkers throughout the fields of California, harvesting crops and moving from one town to another. He attended many schools and didn't learn to speak English until he was 12. His first memory of space is about adjusting the television in order to watch the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

The STS-128 mission ended its 14-day journey on September 11, 2009, at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 5:53 pm PST.

During the summer of 2009, Hernández told the Stockton Record that he would consider not running against fellow Democrat Dennis Cardoza in his Stockton-based district.

Hernández worked various technical assignments until his selection on July 15, 2008, as a mission specialist on the STS-128 mission, which launched on August 28, 2009. While in orbit, Hernández became the first person to use the Spanish language in space while tweeting.

In May 2007, Hernández served as an aquanaut during the NEEMO 12 mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory, living and working underwater for eleven days.

After three years and being turned down eleven times for astronaut training by NASA, Hernández was selected in May 2004. In February 2006 he completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. On completing this initial training, Hernández was assigned to the Shuttle Branch to support Kennedy Space Center Operations in support of Shuttle launch and landing preparations.

In 2001, Hernández joined the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas.

Hernández worked from 1990 to 2004 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. While there, Hernández, along with a commercial colleague, developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system. This invention aids in the early detection of breast cancer.

He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Pacific in 1984. In 1986, Hernández earned an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

José Moreno Hernández (born August 7, 1962) is an American engineer and former NASA astronaut. He is current serves as a Regent of the University of California.