Jose Hernandez was rejected by NASA eleven times. And then, against all odds, he made it to space. Hernandez’s story — and how he went from working farms with his migrant Mexican parents as a child to an astronaut for the U.S. space agency — is portrayed in the film “Million Miles Away.”  The movie tells how a poor child was able to make his way to space through consistent training and persistence and was finally able to achieve his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.

Hernandez was born into a family of migrant workers where his parents and his siblings would move from place to place to farm and harvest different vegetation depending on the season.  From a young age, he had to balance school and his family’s work, where he often had to miss school to work on the farms. Yet despite his trouble showing up for school, he never fell behind in math or science, subjects he was extremely passionate about. He was determined to become an astronaut, but everyone  around him thought he was delusional. What migrant farm worker’s kid could ever become an astronaut?

With over 12,000 applications and only 10 acceptances, the odds were very much against him. Yet despite the very slim chances and everyone, including his family and wife, being against his dream, Hernandez never gave up on his dream. In his first job as an engineer, Hernandez had to overcome many hurdles: The receptionists mistook him as a janitor when his co-workers gave him menial tasks. As an inexperienced intern, he was undervalued and underappreciated by his team. He even wanted to reject parts of his culture like not bringing his mom’s enchiladas to work, so he could fit in with the white people at work. However, over time, Hernandez was able to gain respect from his coworkers, and he went as far as using the janitor’s key to unlock a room to gain access to resources to prove that he was able to find a mistake that no one else had found. This showed that he was being incredibly detailed and resourceful in fields where his co-workers lacked.

However, despite gaining respect from his coworkers and moving his way up to more upper-level positions in the company, there were still many things that Hernandez asked for and had to work for in order to become an astronaut. He trained for the marathon, took pilot lessons, took diving classes, and even went to Serbia to learn Russian so that he would have an advantage over  the then Soviet Union. Yet despite all this, he applied and tried over eleven times before he got the chance to become an astronaut. Instead of giving up, he used this as motivation to try again harder. Every decision that he made was a decision that he took to get him one step closer to his life’s goal.

There was a continuous amount of struggling even after he had been accepted as an astronaut. He was light years behind some of the other astronauts in training like in piloting. Additionally, the training took a hard toll on both his body and his relationships with his family and friends. One of his close friends Kalpana Chawla was involved in a space accident that ultimately led to her death along with the rest of the crew. Yet, when offered the chance to go to space, Henerdez took the chance, despite knowing that there was the risk of death.

Luckily, the STS-128 space shuttle mission was successful and he was able to stay in space for over 13 days. To this day, he lives to tell the tale of his success, a success that inspires millions.

Sampan interviewed Anima Sabale, an engineer at NASA who is currently a scientist-astronaut candidate about her thoughts about the movie and her experience in relation to Jose Hernandez. Like Hernandez, from a young age, she was told that she could not be an astronaut since she was a woman. However, despite all the backlash from relatives, she worked hard to graduate with 2 Master’s degrees and a Ph.D. and got a visa that allowed her to work at NASA.

In Sabale’s career, she applied three times to become an astronaut, each attempt being unsuccessful. She was heavily discouraged; however, after watching A Million Miles Away, she told Sampan “ This movie inspired me to continue pursuing my dreams and not give up. It has been my dream to be an astronaut ever since I saw my first rocket launch when I first came to work for NASA. Hernandez reminded me that even if I feel low, I must keep going.”

Sampan interviewed Angel Contreras, a College sophomore. “I felt represented when I heard about the success of Jose Hernandez. Growing up as a first-generation Mexican American, I do not see much representation of Mexicans in the workforce. I have been told that someone who looks like me will end up in bad jobs, and I too was not taken seriously by my classmates. Seeing Hernandez break down structural barriers that have prevented people like us from thriving makes me feel confident about my future and encourages me to continue to put my effort into my studies. Since the world is changing, one’s background doesn’t determine their success. ”