She had been delivered to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1970 as USC&GS Researcher (OSS 03), but did not enter commission until after her transfer to NOAA later that year.

After her United States Government career came to an end, Malcolm Baldrige became the cruise ship MV Ushuaia, operating between Argentina and Antarctica.

[8] In 1987, the long-serving United States Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige, Jr., died in office of injuries suffered in a rodeo accident.

[6] Sometime in the late 1990s, Malcolm Baldrige was sold to a firm in Argentina, Antarpply Expeditions, which converted her into a cruise ship to run tours to Antarctica.

The Chilean Navy transport Aquiles took off her passengers — 14 Dutch, 12 Americans, 11 Australians, eight Germans, and six Chinese, as well as Canadians, New Zealanders, Britons, Italians, French, Spaniards, Swiss, a Belgian, and a Cypriot — and five Argentine crew members on 5 December 2008 and transported them to the Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva in the South Shetland Islands, from which they were flown to Ushuaia on 6 December 2008 aboard the Argentine Air Force KC-130H Hercules tanker TC-69.