Image

Space-Ocean Connections

Former WHOI Director John Steele presents a model of WHOI’s first research vessel Atlantis to astronauts Woody Spring and Jerry Ross, who flew on NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis in 1986. Individual shuttles were named after historic oceanographic research vessels: Endeavor was named after the ship Captain Cook sailed to discover Australia and New Zealand, for example, and Discovery after the ship that founded the colony in Jamestown, Virginia, and later explored the Northwest Passage. Now oceanography is returning the favor. The two newest ships in the U.S. ocean research fleet have been named after famous astronauts, the research vessels Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)