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HERNANDEZ: My name is José Hernández,
and I'm an astronaut at NASA.
The exciting moments of working here at NASA, first of all,
had to do with getting selected,
'cause, you know, you go from being an engineer
to being an astronaut overnight,
and that certainly is very exciting.
The next thing is that, once you get into the program,
you have two years of training, and it's very exciting,
but it's very hard at the same time, very challenging,
because you have to learn
all the systems of the space shuttle.
And you've got simulations,
you've got training, you've got tests.
It's like being in graduate school all over.
But the big plum, the big prize --
the fruit that you go after --
is getting assigned to a mission,
and I was fortunate enough to get assigned for a mission
that occurred last year on STS-128.
I was the flight engineer, mission specialist number 2,
and the mission specialist number 2
sits right behind the two pilots --
the commander on the left side,
the pilot on the right-hand side --
and I'm right in the middle, a little aft of both of them.
So I have the best view of the house because I have
the whole panoramic view as we blast off into space.
And as the flight engineer,
you're expected to be the expert on all the systems --
all the flight systems -- for the shuttle,
and that's especially important during the 8 1/2 minutes
of dynamic flight that we have to get into space,
because anything that does happen,
I play sort of like the quarterback role.
I have all the resources --
I have a saddlebag full of resources and, of course,
a lot of resources up in my head
with respect to any failures that occur during ascent.
We're able to work with both the commander and the pilot,
depending on what system is affected,
and we try to minimize the effect or correct the problem
as we're going up into space
so that we can continue with our mission.
And I tell you, that is the biggest thrill
anyone can experience
is getting on the shuttle and blasting off into space.
You know, I look back as it happened,
and I can honestly say that all the sacrifice,
all the hard work, everything was worth it when,
for the first time, you undo the belt,
you float, go to the window,
and you're able to see the world from a perspective
where very few humans have had that privilege,
and I certainly feel very lucky to have had that privilege.