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United States Navy Names Ship After Neil Armstrong

Posted by Soulskill on from the pride-of-the-planet dept.

SchrodingerZ writes "In the wake of Neil Armstrong's death, the United States Navy has announced this week that a new research vessel will be named in his honor. This ship will be the first Armstrong-class Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research (AGOR) ship in the world. This ship got its name from secretary Ray Mabus, who wanted to honor the first man to set foot on the moon. 'Naming this class of ships and this vessel after Neil Armstrong honors the memory of an extraordinary individual, but more importantly, it reminds us all to embrace the challenges of exploration and to never stop discovering,' say Mabus. Armstrong, before his career at NASA, flew in combat missions during the Korean war. 'The Armstrong-class AGOR ship will be a modern oceanographic research platform equipped with acoustic equipment capable of mapping the deepest parts of the oceans, and modular on-board laboratories that will provide the flexibility to meet a wide variety of oceanographic research challenges.' It will be 238 feet long, beam length of 50 feet, and will be able to travel at 12 knots. The ship is currently under construction in Anacortes, Washington."

9 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Juxtaposition by dtmos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    . . . it reminds us all to embrace the challenges of exploration and to never stop discovering.

    Placed just above the submission, "Astronomy Portfolio Review Recommends Defunding US's Biggest Telescope," the combination tells you all you need to know.

    1. Re:Juxtaposition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      'The Armstrong-class AGOR ship will be a modern oceanographic research platform equipped with acoustic equipment capable of mapping the deepest parts of the oceans, and modular on-board laboratories that will provide the flexibility to meet a wide variety of oceanographic research challenges.'

      It's a research ship, with a different funding path than the telescope. If there is any case of money from the telescope being spent on this, then it's a good tradeoff because this might actually help us understand a little bit more about the wet rock we live on. I'm in favor of looking at distant rocks and plasmas, but immidiate surroundings are a little more useful to understand.

    2. Re:Juxtaposition by neurophil12 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yea, shit like this is why I occasionally pray for a military coup d'état - hey, it's not like they could do any worse than the pirate ringmasters who currently run this freakshow, right?

      Except that those who might conceivably commit a coup are NOT the ones you'd want running things. There are a lot of great people in our military, but there are some really scary people too (I'm specifically thinking of the far right "Christians" like Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley), and the good people would not be the ones to get involved in a coup. Be careful what you wish for.

  2. Would Neil want this? by nucrash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Neil Armstrong was both a humble man and a great pioneer. I can't help to ask if this is something that he would want. Yet I am proud that they at least picked a ship that would be used for exploration and not some destroyer or cruiser.

    --
    Place something witty here
    1. Re:Would Neil want this? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Also he was in the Navy so I think it would made him a little proud.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:Would Neil want this? by networkBoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm not. While you are correct that a destroyer *may* be the traditional reward, Neil was not a traditional sailor. A vessel class of exploration is fitting, as he was one of our country's most iconic explorers (that was real...).

      -nb

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  3. Re:Could it be? by Baloroth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh no! A random vague "prophecy" that can be interpreted to fit events from nearly any period in human history! The end is nigh*!

    *For some definition of "nigh" that includes anytime from tomorrow to the heat-death of the universe. So, in other words, just about as precise as this "prophecy".

    --
    "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
  4. Re:Nice, but..... by erice · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There's no reason he can't have a class of spaceship one day too. I don't understand why everyone is so bleak that he got a boat.

    Because looking forward from the era of Apollo 11, it seemed so certain that there would be suitable space ships within Neil Armstrong's lifetime. Now the hero is gone and the best we can offer is a boat with a hope that "someday" there may be a space ship. Our ambitions and expectations have truly diminished.

  5. Re:Nice, but..... by tomhath · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He was a Navy pilot before becoming an astronaut. So an ocean research ship is appropriate. Maybe some day they'll name the first permanent Moon base after him too.