Navy Christens Research Ship for Sally Ride

Dr. Tam O'Shaughnessy, ship's sponsor for the Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research (AGOR) research vessel (R/V) Sally Ride (AGOR 28), breaks a bottle across the bow during a christening ceremony at Dakota Creek Industries, Inc., shipyard in Anacortes, Washington, on Aug. 9, 2014. 

Credit: U.S. Navy/John F. Williams

The U.S. Navy has honored America's first woman in space, christening its newest research ship after the late astronaut Sally Ride.

Tam O'Shaughnessy, Ride's life partner and successor as chief executive officer at the science education company Sally Ride Science, broke the traditional champagne bottle across the bow of the R/V Sally Ride during the naming ceremony held at the Dakota Creek Industries shipyard in Anacortes, Washington on Saturday (Aug. 9).

"For the United States of America, I christen thee 'Sally Ride,'" O'Shaughnessy stated just before striking the bow. "May God bless this ship and all who sail in her."

Joining O'Shaughnessy at the event were Bear Ride, the astronaut's sister, and Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to conduct a spacewalk, who today serves as the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) administrator.

US Navy transitions global ocean forecast system for public use

This Image from the Navy Global Ocean Forecast System (GOFS) portrays sea surface temperature (SST) on Jan. 15, 2014. 

The warm tropical waters can be seen to flow through the Gulf of Mexico and northward along the eastern US seaboard where the Gulf Stream separates at Cape Hatteras, off the coast of North Carolina, and flows to the east. 

This warm water "conveyer-belt" alters the ice cover across the north Atlantic. 

Without the ocean transport of heat, global climate and weather would be dramatically changed. 

Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory-Oceanography Division

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) within the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have entered into a formal agreement that results in NCEP using Navy developed global ocean forecast model technology to make environmental ocean forecasts for public use.

"Development of an advanced global ocean prediction system has been a long-term Navy interest," said Dr. Gregg Jacobs, head, NRL Ocean Dynamics and Prediction Branch.

"This use of Navy developed systems for global ocean forecasting represents dual use technology that will benefit civilian interests and is an excellent example of the cutting edge research that is enabled through Navy sponsored investments."

The Navy has had requirements for predicting the ocean environment for its purposes including estimating acoustic propagation, placement of sonar arrays, determining currents for mine drift and burial, drift for search and rescue, and safety of operations on and under the ocean surface.

NRL has enabled Navy operational ocean prediction of tactically relevant information.

To accomplish this task, Jacobs says three critical components are necessary to predict the open ocean environment.


Ocean Circulation Models - Gregg Jacobs.

"The first is access to satellite observations that measure precise sea surface height, sea surface temperature and ice concentration with in situ observations from public sources and Navy ships; second, numerical models representing the dynamical processes capable of understanding the physics of the ocean and numerical methods for efficiently representing those physics; and lastly, the third critical component is the technology to correct the numerical models using the observations through data assimilation."

The new agreement will allow NCEP to use software developed by NRL to assimilate data necessary to maintain daily forecast accuracy that enables safe, at-sea operations, hazard mitigation, resource management, and emergency response.

"This is an example of complementary missions across agencies that through coordinated application leads to protecting our service personnel, who ensure the high seas are safe, and protecting our resources and citizens at home." Jacobs said.

US Navy's stealthy Zumwalt destroyer is moored at Bath Iron Works

In a Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013 file photo, the Navy's stealthy Zumwalt destroyer is moored at Bath Iron Works, in Bath, Maine. 

The skipper of the technology-laden Zumwalt is Capt. James Kirk, and his futuristic-looking vessel sports cutting-edge technology, new propulsion and powerful armaments, but this ship isn't the Starship Enterprise. 

The technology-laden Zumwalt taking shape at Maine's Bath Iron Works is unlike any other U.S. warship. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Captain Kirk's futuristic-looking vessel sports cutting-edge technology, new propulsion and powerful armaments, but this ship isn't the Starship Enterprise.

The skipper of the stealthy USS Zumwalt is Navy Capt. James Kirk, and yes, he's used to the jokes about the name he shares with the TV starship commander played by actor William Shatner.

"I don't take any offense," he told reporters in an interview. "If it's a helpful moniker that brings attention to help us to do what we need to do to get the ship into the fleet and into combat operations, then that's fine."

While it's no starship, the technology-laden Zumwalt taking shape at Maine's Bath Iron Works is unlike any other U.S. warship.

The Navy's largest destroyer will feature a composite deckhouse with hidden radar and sensors and an angular shape that minimizes its radar signature. Its unusual wave-piercing hull will reduce the ship's wake.

It's the first U.S. surface warship to use electric propulsion, and its power plant is capable of producing enough electricity to light up a small city and to power future weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun.



Inside, it's just as unique. The number of sailors needed to stand watch will be reduced through the use of cameras and video monitors that show what's going on outside.

The bridge will indeed look like something from "Star Trek" with two chairs surrounded by nearly 360 degrees of video monitors.

A handful of reporters accompanying Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday got a first look at the ship's interior while it's under construction. It's due to be christened in the spring.

The 610-foot (186-meter)-long ship has the highest level of automation on a U.S. surface warship, with systems in place to combat flooding and to put out fires, among other things.

Because of automation and technology, the number of sailors needed to run it will be nearly half the number serving on the current Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

All this whiz-bam technology comes at a price that sailors couldn't have imagined in the mid-1960s, when the first episodes of "Star Trek" aired on television.

The first-in-class Zumwalt will cost northward of $3.5 billion, a price tag so high that the Navy was forced to reduce the number of ships in the series to just three.

The Legend and Name of Sally Ride Lives on as AGOR ship

Prof Sally Ride

The United States Navy's first academic research ship to be named after a woman will be christened R/V Sally Ride after NASA's first female astronaut to fly in space.

She became the first American woman to enter space in a low Earth orbit in 1983, a full twenty years after the Soviet Union's first woman astronaut Valentina Tereshkova.

Dr Sally Ride left NASA in 1987 to work as a Professor at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control and had served on the investigation panels for two space shuttle disasters (Challenger and Columbia)—the only person to serve on both.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Friday (April 12) the next ocean-class Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research (AGOR) ship will be named the R/V Sally Ride.

"As secretary of the Navy, I have the great privilege of naming ships that will represent America with distinction as part of the fleet for many decades to come," Mabus said in a statement revealing the names of seven ships, including the Sally Ride.

"These ships were all named to recognise the hard working people from cities all around our country who have contributed in so many ways to our Navy and Marine Corps team."

Mabus named the future R/V Sally Ride in memory of the astronaut, who also served as a professor, scientist and innovator at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California in San Diego. Scripps will operate the R/V Sally Ride when it enters the Navy's fleet in 2015.

Dr Sally Ride, 65, died on July 23, 2012, as a result of pancreatic cancer.

The R/V Sally Ride, a Neil Armstrong-class AGOR ship, is the U.S. Navy's first research vessel named after a woman. 

It is named after the late great Prof Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

CREDIT: Department of Defense

Valentina Tereshkova (born 6 March 1937) is a retired Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.

It took NASA and the US Adminstration a further 20 years to finally approve of women astronauts. Until that time they were thought NOT capable of the Right Stuff!

US Laser weapon to be mounted on USS Navy warship Ponce - Video

The US Navy has released a video of a laser weapon it says will be stationed on US warship Ponce in the Middle East, despite reports it has problems working in bad weather.

The weapon runs on electricity and can fire as long as there is power, at a cost of $1 dollar per shot. Military experts claim it is a step towards transforming warfare.

However, a report from the Congressional Research Service says there are drawbacks, including the potential that it could hit satellites or aircraft and may not work in rain or foggy conditions.

The laser weapon will be installed on USS Ponce which is being used as a floating base in the Middle East in 2014.

NASA Orion Vehicle: The Main Parachutes from the CPAS

One of NASA Orion’s main parachutes from the Capsule Parachute Assembly System, or CPAS, is lowered into the water at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The Orion CPAS team joined the Exploration Flight Test 1 recovery team and representatives of the U.S. Navy to test recovery procedures for the Orion parachutes.

The NBL is 202 feet in length, 102 feet in width, and 40 feet in depth (20 feet above ground level and 20 ft below) and holds 6.2 million gallons of water.

In addition to the current parachute recovery test the facility has been used by the Orion program to test the Crew Module Uprighting system on a full size Orion mockup known as PORT.

Image Credit: NASA/James Blair