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Well Done, Atlantis!

Today marks the planned final launch of the space shuttle Atlantis and NASA’s final shuttle mission. Atlantis is named for WHOI’s first research vessel, a 142-foot steel-hulled ketch that sailed from 1931 until it was retired in 1964 after a remarkable career of research and exploration spanning 299 missions and 700,000 miles. In recognition of that career, which continues under the name Dr. Bernardo Houssay for the Argentine Navy, NASA named its fourth space shuttle Atlantis. When it, too, finally retires, the space-going Atlantis will have logged well over 100 million miles in orbit. From WHOI to NASA: Well done, and safe flight.
(Photo by Dave Owen, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)