United States Navy Names Ship After Neil Armstrong

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United States Navy Names Ship After Neil Armstrong

Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 28, 2012 @04:17AM 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."

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Juxtaposition by dtmos · 2012-09-28 04:17 · 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 · 2012-09-28 04:30 · 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 CanHasDIY · 2012-09-28 04:44 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  . . . 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.
  That the military is the only US government entity that can see the value in continued research in the sciences? It sure isn't the Republicrat politicians.
  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?
  
  --
  An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
3. Re:Juxtaposition by neurophil12 · 2012-09-28 05:35 · 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.
4. Re:Juxtaposition by wcrowe · 2012-09-28 06:35 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Well, I don't know about that. "Oceanographic Research" vessels in the Navy are not exactly what they appear. Any scientific research they are doing is in support of improving our own naval warfare capabilities, or spying on and testing the capabilities of other nations.
  
  --
  Proverbs 21:19
5. Re:Juxtaposition by neurophil12 · 2012-09-28 07:04 · Score: 2
  
  While I would not completely rule out your scenario, let me go into more detail about why I see it as being far less likely. While an extremist Christian with sufficient support within the military (as opposed to some other type of extremist who probably does not have such a power base) may support the structure of our government, such a person/group might be spurred to action by a liberal administration that has held power for long enough and/or holds sufficient majorities in Congress. I would imagine these extremists acting in the interest of "restoring the Christian nation to the ideals of the Christian founders" or something like that.
  On the other hand you have those in the military who have a better grasp on the Constitution and our nation's history and ideals. At some point in the future our government may degrade the system and its adherence to the Constitution sufficiently to provoke a coup of the sort you'd like to see. However we are nowhere near such a scenario because many people still believe that we can fix the government through traditional means (elections and political pressure). Moreover, there is great risk in a coup and so it would only be undertaken by such people in the scenario in which it is fully clear that traditional means will fail AND the current administration is clearly surpassing its Constitutional authority in an irreversible manner.
  A coup would result in a standoff between parts of the military and in a divided nation could lead to serious bloodshed and martial law. The unknowns of such a scenario are so great that responsible individuals would be much less likely to make such an attempt compared with those of a more extremist attitude.
6. Re:Juxtaposition by charlesr44403 · 2012-09-28 09:17 · Score: 2
  
  My first thought at seeing "AGOR-1" was "AGER-2" (Auxiliary General Environmental Research) aka USS Pueblo which was hijacked and still now held by North Korea. Pueblo was really a spy ship, and categorizing the USS Armstrong so very similarly leaves so little doubt about its real purpose too.
Would Neil want this? by nucrash · 2012-09-28 04:27 · 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 K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-09-28 04:41 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  "Yet I am proud that they at least picked a ship that would be used for exploration and not some destroyer or cruiser."
  What, you think that a ship named Armstrong wouldn't be good for strong-arming other people?
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
2. Re:Would Neil want this? by geekoid · 2012-09-28 04:41 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Then you know little about the man. Going to the moon is something he did, but he was much, much more then that.
  The man was a nerd, engineer, teacher, astronaut.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
3. Re:Would Neil want this? by RadioTV · 2012-09-28 04:50 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  He was also a Navy fighter pilot.
  
  --
  I have great faith in fools - self confidence my friends call it. - Edgar Allan Poe
4. Re:Would Neil want this? by UnknowingFool · 2012-09-28 05:39 · 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.
5. Re:Would Neil want this? by networkBoy · 2012-09-28 05:54 · 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
6. Re:Would Neil want this? by Like2Byte · 2012-09-28 06:12 · Score: 2
  
  Also he was in the Navy so I think it would made him a little proud.
  Not knowing the man; but, hearing just how humble he was, I'd think he'd be even more humble after this. Proud? No.
  Just my 2 cents.
Re:Nice, but..... by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2012-09-28 04:47 · Score: 2

not a class of spaceships?
Maybe the Star Trek folks will pick it up.
That's the best that you can hope for in our lifetimes . . .

--
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Re:Could it be? by Baloroth · 2012-09-28 04:59 · 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
NASA would have, but... by Overzeetop · 2012-09-28 05:01 · Score: 2

How many different spacecraft are there coming on line in the next couple of years to afford naming rights?
Let's face it, the military is the only branch of government with a budget big enough to have a fleet of vessels anymore.

--
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
cannot do any space exploration?~! by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2012-09-28 05:06 · Score: 5, Informative

>> you cannot do any space exploration because the US is spending huge amounts of money on the military
Seen any news about Mars lately? Thought so. Then also check out:
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/current/index.html
1. Re:cannot do any space exploration?~! by Dan667 · 2012-09-28 14:12 · Score: 2
  
  the US is building several aircraft carriers it does not need (it already has 11). Imagine what real work could be done if the billions wasted on these unneeded military projects was spent on something useful.
Re:Nice, but..... by erice · 2012-09-28 05:51 · 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.
Re:Nice, but..... by tomhath · 2012-09-28 06:29 · 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.
Re:the irony by Dan667 · 2012-09-28 14:12 · Score: 2

the US has not defended anything since WWII.