Prior to her NOAA career, she was in commission in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1967 to 1970 as USC&GS Rude (ASV 90).

She was launched on 17 August 1966[1] and commissioned into Coast and Geodetic Survey service on 29 March 1967[1] as USC&GS Rude (ASV 90).

She located the wreckage of TWA Flight 800 on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island off Moriches, New York, in July 1996, receiving a Department of Commerce Gold Medal that year for her efforts.

[3][4] After receiving word that the Piper Saratoga II HP flown by John F. Kennedy, Jr. had disappeared during a flight on the evening of 16 July 1999 and was feared to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Rude began searching for the wreckage of the aircraft on 17 July using sidescan sonar and multibeam sonar.

The NOAA survey ship NOAAS Whiting arrived on the scene on the morning of 19 July and joined Rude in search efforts, employing a more advanced sidescan sonar than the one aboard Rude, giving Whiting a higher resolution and a higher search speed.

[7] The program for the ceremony cited the ships' achievements as follows: LCDR Robert V. Smart, LTJG Kenneth G. Vadnais, ENS Samuel P. De Bow, Jr., Messrs. William N. Brooks, Johnnie B. Davis, James S. Eamons, Kenneth M. Jones, Frank Krusz, Jr., Anthony W. Styron, and Eijah J. Willis of the NOAA Ship RUDE and LCDR Thomas W. Ruszala, LTJG Charles E. Gross, and Messrs. Mark Aldridge, Horace B. Harris, Charles J. Gentilcore, Dennis S. Brickhouse, Robert T. Lindton, Arnold K. Pedersen, Joseph Wiggins, and James P. Taylor of the NOAA Ship HECK are recognized for rescuing the crew and scientists from the burning vessel M/V MIDNIGHT SUN and saving the vessel from total loss.

The crew of the NOAA Ship HECK displayed outstanding seamanship through their efforts over 20 consecutive hours to fight the fire.

The actions of the two ships' crew members demonstrated superior performance and exceptional courage in a maritime emergency beyond the call of duty.

[8] The program for the ceremony cited the team's achievements as follows: The NOAA TWA Flight 800 Disaster Response Team is recognized for their crucial role in providing precise map mosaics of the Atlantic Ocean debris fields off Long Island, New York.

Within hours after the disaster, the NOAA team arrived on the site and began surveying the ocean floor with highly sophisticated side scan sonar equipment.

The team utilized the sonar data to produce precisely located graphic descriptions of the debris fields.

[9] On 22 September 2008, while Lake Explorer II was moored in the Elizabeth River at the NOAA Marine Operations Base at Norfolk, still without her new name painted on her side, she suffered a fracture in a stern tube which ran through her center fuel tank, causing her to spill an estimated 1,400 U.S. gallons (5,300 liters) of diesel fuel into the river.

[10][11] During the summer of 2009, Lake Explorer II was hauled out of the water at a shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, for upgrades to her structural components.

[9][12] Her work includes the use of advanced technologies for sampling aquatic life, water quality, and sediments, including the deployment of advanced in situ environmental sensing system packages, which make continuous synoptic maps of water and plankton properties, allowing for greater efficiency during extensive research surveys.