The US Navy and Scripps Institution of Oceanography
christened the first vessel in the national research fleet named for a female
scientist on Aug. 9. A crowd of more than 150 dignitaries formally welcomed the
R/V Sally Ride at the Anacortes,
Washington shipyard where it is being built.
“This vessel is going to be a general purpose oceanographic
research vessel operated through the University-National Oceanographic
Laboratory System, or UNOLS, for the benefit of entire US academic research
community,” Scripps Associate Director Bruce Appelgate, head of Scripps Ship
Operations, said.
The Neil Armstrong class of vessels, of which R/V Sally Ride is a member, features a
suite of oceanographic equipment, acoustic equipment capable of mapping the
deepest parts of the oceans, over-the-side handling gear to deploy and retrieve
scientific instruments, emissions controls for stack gasses and new information
technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating
with land-based sites worldwide.
Substantial construction and outfitting of the 238-foot vessel
remains, however. Scripps anticipates taking delivery of the vessel in mid-2015
and then spending at least six months field-testing it.
The R/V Sally Ride
will be manned by a commercial crew and operated by Scripps under a
charter-party agreement with the Office of Naval Research.
The US Navy now owns six of the nation’s largest
oceanographic research ships, and the R/V
Sally Ride is now the fifth ship currently serving the Navy to be named for
an astronaut. Others include the recently christened R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27), the mobile landing platform John Glenn (MLP 2) and dry cargo and
ammunition ships Wally Schirra (T-AKE
8) and Alan Shepard (T-AKE 3).
The R/V Sally Ride
was named after Sally Ride, the scientist, innovator and educator who was the
first American woman and youngest person in space. Ride later served as
director of NASA's Office of Exploration and the California Space Institute at the
University of California, San Diego.
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