Spotlight on John B. Herrington

Astronaut John B. Herrington, mission specialist.

John Bennett Herrington is a retired United States Naval Aviator, engineer, and former NASA astronaut.  He made history in 2002 by becoming the first Native American to fly in space.  He is a member of the Chickasaw Nation.

Born in 1958 in Watumka, Oklahoma, Herrington grew up during America's space race with the Soviet Union.  His childhood heroes were astronauts.  Herrington's father was a flight instructor, which spurred his interest in aviation.

When he graduated from college in 1983, Herrington enrolled at the Navy's aviation Officer Candidate School.  In 1985, he was commissioned as a naval aviator.  He went on to spend the next ten years logging more than 3,800 flight hours on various assignments for the navy.

In 1996, NASA selected him from 2,500 applicants to be a part of the new class of astronaut candidates.  Herrington flew on the space shuttle Endeavour as a mission specialist as it delivered new crew to the International Space Station.  During the mission, he performed three spacewalks.  The total mission duration was 13 days, 18 hours, and 47 minutes.

Herrington took pieces of his Native American heritage with him into space.  He brought a flag from the Chickasaw Nation, a flute (made by a Cherokee friend who was an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center), and a feather.

In July 2004, Herrington spent ten days as the commander of the NEEMO 6 mission living in NASA's Underwater Aquarius lab studying survival techniques for space exploration.  He retired from the Navy and from NASA in 2005.

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