Space travel corporation names astronaut as VP and test pilot      

[OCT. 5, 2005]  OKLAHOMA CITY -- Rocketplane Limited announced that Oklahoma astronaut John B. Herrington joined the company Sept. 6 as vice president and director of flight systems. He will also serve as chief test pilot for the XP Spaceplane.

"John is a NASA astronaut; however, it is his many spectacular talents and abilities that make him valuable to the Rocketplane team," said George French, Rocketplane president. "He is a military test pilot, knows flight avionics and astronautics, and knows the environment of space. To us, John is an asset in that he brings education, knowledge, experience and skills to finish and test our spaceplane, which will regularly take civilian astronauts into space."

U.S. Navy Capt. John B. Herrington is the first Native American to fly and walk in space Born in Wetumka, he is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. Herrington has logged 330 hours in space, including nearly 20 hours of extravehicular activity, since NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 1996. As mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, STS-113 (Nov. 23 to Dec. 7, 2002), he exhibited spectacular skill assembling and repairing the International Space Station as part of the mission. During his career with NASA and the U.S. Navy, Herrington has logged more than 4,000 flight hours in more than 30 different types of aircraft. He is retiring from his position with NASA Johnson Space Center to join the Rocketplane team.

Herrington received a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs in 1983 and a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1995. The recipient of numerous honors, he was a distinguished naval graduate from Aviation Officer Candidate School in 1984. He was awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation, Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbon, National Defense Medal, three Sea Service Deployment Ribbons and various other service honors.

Rocketplane Limited Inc. is an Oklahoma corporation striving to make space travel as safe, convenient and commonplace as air travel. Rocketplane will design and build state-of-the-art reusable spaceplanes, provide unparalleled human training and spaceflight experiences, and transport innovative scientific experiments and valuable payloads to suborbital space and beyond.

[Rocketplane news release]