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Politics & Government

Navy Research Ship for Woods Hole Nears Completion

Named for the first man to set foot on the moon, the R/V Neil Armstrong will be operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution after it is launched later this year.

A new Navy research vessel, named for the first astronaut on the moon, will call Woods Hole its home port when it is completed later this year.

Construction of the R/V Neil Armstrong began nearly a year and a half ago, in August, 2012, at a shipyard in Anacortes, WA.

After its completion, expected later this year, the ship will be operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

"The R/V Neil Armstrong is the first oceanographic research vessel named for a space explorer, but the link between space exploration and ocean science is not new," according to a WHOI statement.

"Each of NASA’s space shuttles was named for a famous oceanographic vessel, including the space shuttle Atlantis, whose namesake, the WHOI ketch Atlantis, was the first U.S. ship built for ocean research."

The 238-foot Navy ship will "serve a pressing need for a new general-purpose research vessel based on the East Coast of the United States and will be deployed for a wide variety of oceanographic and ocean engineering missions,” said WHOI Vice President for Marine Operations Rob Munier when the ship's name was announced in September, 2012.

The Neil Armstrong "is also expected to support new initiatives in ocean observing in high latitudes, as well as new efforts to study North Atlantic ecosystems and their sustainability,” Munier continued.

A status update posted Friday on the WHOI Facebook page, including a photo of the ship under construction and the words "Won't be long now ... " had by Monday morning been shared close to 100 times and received nearly 800 likes and 35 comments.

Learn more about the new research vessel at http://www.whoi.edu/main/ships/neil-armstrong.

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