USS Nautilus (SSN-571)

USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the first nuclear-powered submarine and the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole, on 3 August 1958. Authorised in 1951, she was built by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in Groton, Connecticut, launched in January 1954 with Mamie Eisenhower as sponsor, and commissioned into the United States Navy on 30 September 1954. Her pressurised-water S2W reactor, developed under Captain Hyman G. Rickover, let her stay submerged far longer than diesel-electric boats, and she broke many records in her early years. Operation also revealed design limits that improved later submarines. She was decommissioned in 1980, named a National Historic Landmark in 1982 and is now a museum ship at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton.