The Navy
will name a research ship the Neil Armstrong. In fact, the entire class of
Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research ships will now be called
Armstrong-class vessels.
Armstrong,
the Ohio native who died in August, will always be known as the first man to
walk on the moon. But he was a Navy aviator first, with 78 combat missions from
the aircraft carrier Essex. Then he turned to science and to space.
The
238-foot ship, currently being built, will be a research platform capable of
mapping the deepest parts of the ocean with onboard laboratories for other
marine science. The ship will have a crew of 20, and room for 24 scientists.
After it is built, the R/V Neil Armstrong’s home port will be the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “R/V” stands for Research Vessel.
Since
World War II, the Navy’s Office of Naval Research has been building and
maintaining large ships for academic research.
