Rocketplane Global vice president and chief test pilot John Herrington has left the company, according to an Associated Press report, which refers to a press release issued by the Chickasaw Nation, of which Herrington is a member. Herrington left the company on December 21, although his departure was announced only this week. Herrington gave no reason for leaving the company, saying only that his decision “was a difficult one”. The company also didn’t respond to a request for comments from the AP, although Herrington is no longer listed on the Rocketplane Global web site.
Herrington didn’t go into specifics about future plans, but he did say that he wants to remain involved in the commercial space industry because “commercial space is the next great adventure in aerospace.”
Update 1/4: Herrington tells the Oklahoma newspaper The Journal Record that while he was impressed with Rocketplane’s technology, the difficulty the company has had raising money was “most frustrating point for me.” Leaving the company, he said, allows him to pursue “some really great opportunities that have come up for me in the near future,” although he didn’t specify what those are.
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