Navy research ship to bear Armstrong’s name

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.

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