{"id":162632,"date":"2025-03-13T11:59:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T17:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=162632"},"modified":"2025-03-13T12:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T18:03:04","slug":"making-history-in-naval-and-space-flight-john-herrington-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=162632","title":{"rendered":"Making history in naval and space flight | John Herrington &#8217;83"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1051329247?h=a9b7ab7359&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"740\" height=\"416\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two decades after his graduation from UCCS, John B. Herrington became the first citizen of a Federally-recognized tribe to fly in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A retired Navy Commander, naval aviator, test pilot, aquanaut and astronaut, Herrington is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and completed three spacewalks in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After graduating in 1983 with an applied mathematics degree, Herrington joined the navy and embarked on the path that would eventually lead him to NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I found that with the mathematics background, I had that analytical problem-solving process and it paid huge dividends throughout my career both as a naval aviator and astronaut,&#8221; said Herrington. &#8220;I worked for NASA for nine years, initially on a GPS\/INS Integration for the space shuttle, then went on to work at the Kennedy Space Center as what was known as a &#8216;Caped Crusader.'&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his Caped Crusader role, John was one of the last people astronauts saw before takeoff and one of the first to welcome them back. After a few years in that position, it was his turn to take a spacewalk &#8211; and experience the 300-pound space suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I helped strap my colleagues into the space shuttle, pat them on the head, close the hatch and watch them lift off, and then recover them when they came home,&#8221; said John said with a chuckle. &#8220;While there, I was assigned to SDS 113 as a mission specialist. I got to fly on the space shuttle in 2002 to the International Space Station (ISS) and do three spacewalks in the process.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few special items accompanied Herrington on his trip to space &#8211; an eagle feather with symbolic beading and a Rivercane flute made by a Cherokee friend who was also an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center. These now reside in the Smithsonian and National Museum of the American Indian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this would come to fruition,&#8221; said John. &#8220;I am blessed that I had the opportunity to go to school here. Whatever I&#8217;ve done in my life, the people and school here made a difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A member of the Class of 1983, Herrington holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from UCCS, a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Idaho. Herrington also received an honorary doctorate from UCCS in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Herrington is a distinguished alumnus who delivered the fall 2024 commencement keynote speech.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/alumni.uccs.edu\/news\/distinguished\">View a list of other notable alumni here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Two decades after his graduation from UCCS, John B. Herrington became the first citizen of a Federally-recognized tribe to fly in space. <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=162632\" title=\"Making history in naval and space flight | John Herrington &#8217;83\">(More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":162701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,427],"tags":[370,369,86,42,332,437],"class_list":["post-162632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-alumni-stories","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-success","tag-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences","tag-commencement","tag-more-news","tag-video"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Abby-Copy-of-Communique-Featured-Image-2025-03-13T120148.495.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-Gj6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162632"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162690,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162632\/revisions\/162690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/162701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}