'A Million Miles Away' tells real story of Latino migrant farmworker turned NASA astronaut

It was a cold December night in 1972 when a 10-year-old boy who worked the fields as a migrant farmworker with his family looked up at the sky and dreamed of becoming an astronaut. 

"I was watching the very last Apollo mission, kneeling down in front of a black-and-white TV, hanging on to the rabbit ear antennas to improve the reception watching Gene Cernan walking the moon," engineer and former NASA astronaut José Hernández, 61, tells USA TODAY. "Then I went outside and I saw the moon, almost full, came back and heard the reporter Walter Cronkite narrate that whole moonwalk. That's when I was hooked. 'That's it,' I said, 'I want to be like that guy.' "

He fulfilled that dream in 2009 when he was assigned to the crew of the Space Shuttle mission STS-128.

Inspired by the NASA flight engineer's real-life story and based on Hernández's memoir, the Amazon Prime Video biopic "A Million Miles Away" (streaming) follows him and his family of proud migrant workers on a decadeslong journey, from a rural village in Michoacán, Mexico, to the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, California, to more than 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station. 

'A Million Miles Away' is about community, sacrifice

Starring actor Michael Peña ("Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan," "Martian") as a soft-spoken and determined Hernández and Rosa Salazar ("Brand New Cherry Flavor," "Bird Box") as Hernández's sharp-witted and supportive wife, "A Million Miles Away" is the embodiment of the saying, "It takes a village."

After all, it was a family affair reaching his goal, Hernández says.

Directed and co-written by Mexican filmmaker Alejandra Márquez Abella ("Northern Skies Over Empty Space," "The Good Girls"), the film did a "masterful job at representing my story and ensuring that it wasn't just a story about one individual rising as a migrant farmworker to become a U.S. NASA astronaut but rather a community effort," Hernández adds.

Everyone in Hernández's circle made sacrifices to help him reach his dream. His parents stopped moving him and his siblings from field to field and put on the backburner their dream of building a home back in Mexico. His wife put her dream of opening a restaurant on hold so Hernández could focus on NASA, and while he's preparing for his future, in a gut-wrenching scene, Hernández also misses the birth of one of his children.

"It was my family’s effort, my wife's contribution – everything," Hernández says.

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It was all or nothing in casting Michael Peña in 'A Million Miles Away'

When it came to casting for Hernández's role, the former NASA astronaut and director Márquez Abella knew they wanted Peña, 47, to take the lead.

It was the middle of the pandemic when he accepted the role, but Hernández says he and Peña connected virtually and he "got the gist of my personality, my sense of humor and that coupled with his trips with Alejandra to NASA ... it was a natural choice. He did a masterful job."

"Michael is a superstar; there was no other option," Márquez Abella says.

"He's such a hardworking and impressive actor," she adds. "It amazes me how he is on set and how he prepares for his scenes. His conviction, strength and work ethic are admirable."

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But if it's not a pandemic, it's a strike as the director and real-life subject of "A Million Miles Away" promote the film without their leading stars.

"It's sad that when Michael gets a nice leading role, and Rosa, too, that they can't be here to enjoy the fruits of their labor," Hernández says. "I'm trying to do the best I can to represent them now since they represented me on screen."

Márquez Abella adds, "It's a shame they're not here during such an important moment for the Latino community."

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NASA engineer José Hernández says 'put in the work and effort'

Hernández was turned down eleven times for astronaut training by NASA before being selected in May 2004.

"Deep inside, I felt like, 'It was about damn time,'" Hernández says of the process. "I felt I had done the work and the preparation to finally get selected but you have to understand over 12,000 people apply for 10-15 positions so the competition is very stiff but I still thought, 'It's about time.' Because I felt so ready many cycles before."

In February 2006, he completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, physiological training, flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. He then worked on various technical assignments until his selection in July 2008 as a mission specialist which launched into orbit the following fall.

Hernández wants viewers watching his story to not only feel inspired but also walk away with the tools necessary to put their dreams into action.

"It's worth dreaming big, as long as you're willing to put in the work and effort to convert that dream into reality," Hernández says. "There's a recipe there, sprinkled throughout the movie. The tools are there. It's an inspirational movie but you also have some tools to take home with you."