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Cucumber farmer tries his hand at rocket science
Ed Harris25.08.09
The uncle of a Mexican engineer who became an astronaut after farming cucumbers shows off his photograph as his nephew prepares to go into space.
Jose Hernandez, a 47-year-old engineer who grew up in a migrant crop-picking family in California, will become the second Mexican in space when Discovery blasts off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. He will have to wait - thunderstorms forced Nasa to call off the Shuttle's launch to the international space station early today. Officials said they would try again tomorrow.
The astronaut, married with five children, spoke only Spanish until he was 12. He joined Nasa in 2001 as a research engineer. His uncle, Raul Moreno Vazquez, will be wishing him luck from his home in Ticuitaco in Mexico.
Also on the flight will be engineer Nicole Stott, 46, from Florida.
