A former NASA astronaut who was the first American woman to walk in space has become the world's first woman to reach the deepest point on Earth.
Kathy Sullivan on Saturday (June 6) dove to Challenger Deep, the lowest-known location on the planet. She is now the first woman and eighth person to descend the 7 miles (11 kilometers) to the bottom of the crescent-shaped Mariana Trench, located near Guam in the Western Pacific Ocean.
"Challenger Deep — and back!" wrote Sullivan on Facebook after completing the history-making dive. "10,915 m[eters] on our gauges (35,810 ft)."
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 45092 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 06-08-2020 09:35 AM
From Kathy Sullivan (via Facebook):
Looking forward to adding these new patches to my flight suit. Thanks to Doug Peebles and his team for the Most Vertical Girl design and to Tim Gagnon for the 10+km design (modeled on the Mach 25 patch worn by U.S. astronauts).
SpaceCadet1983 Member
Posts: 294 From: Pacific NW, United States Registered: May 2012
posted 06-08-2020 02:48 PM
Congratulations to Kathy Sullivan for her grand adventure! Reminds me of Scott Carpenter's astronaut/aquanaut adventure during the US Navy's SEALAB Program.
Larry McGlynn Member
Posts: 1305 From: Boston, MA Registered: Jul 2003
posted 06-08-2020 06:24 PM
That is pretty amazing. Well done Dr. Sullivan!
Jonnyed Member
Posts: 450 From: Dumfries, VA, USA Registered: Aug 2014
posted 06-09-2020 10:50 AM
The other fun thing to think about is the range in environmental pressure that she has adventured in... at 7 miles down in the trench the external pressure on the diving vessel is about 8 tons per square inch.* Incredible isn't it? And then of course she has traveled in the vacuum of space. So quite a spectrum there.
*I'm a former nuclear submarine officer and they taught us that it was roughly 44 lbs per sq. inch for every 100 feet you descend so you can do the math too. Amazing that some sea life can handle the pressures of the deep.
randy Member
Posts: 2335 From: West Jordan, Utah USA Registered: Dec 1999
posted 06-11-2020 07:04 PM
You go girl!
Buel Member
Posts: 713 From: UK Registered: Mar 2012
posted 06-11-2020 07:42 PM
quote:Originally posted by Jonnyed: The other fun thing to think about is the range in environmental pressure that she has adventured in...
This was fascinating!! Thank you!
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 45092 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 06-13-2020 01:57 PM
Vanessa O'Brien, who set a Guinness World Record for climbing the highest peak on every continent in 295 days, the fastest time by a woman, has become the second woman to dive to Challenger Deep. O'Brien reached the lowest point of the Mariana Trench on Friday (June 12), six days after Kathy Sullivan's history-making dive.
Caladan Oceanic has released the first video from Sullivan's dive:
SkyMan1958 Member
Posts: 945 From: CA. Registered: Jan 2011
posted 06-13-2020 07:17 PM
Congratulations to KS!
In talking with Charlie Walker some years ago, he was very impressed with KS' ability to work (and talk) her way into programs/missions. He mentioned that KS had to help an oceanographer. Somehow she managed to wangle her way aboard an SR-71 flight to "observe the ocean" to "help" this oceanographer.
Personally I didn't think the SR-71 instrument package had much in the way of instruments that could pull information with significant data from the ocean's surface (much less sub-surface), so it must have been an interesting wangle.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 45092 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 06-20-2020 06:39 PM
From Kathy Sullivan (via Facebook):
This day in history: The number of people who have dived to the deepest point in the ocean finally equals the number who have walked on the Moon — 12. It only took 51 years. Small victory: 2 of the 12 were women (myself and Vanessa O'Brien).
The 12 people who have dove to the botom of the Mariana Trench are:
Jacques Piccard (Jan. 23, 1960)
Don Walsh (Jan. 23, 1960)
James Cameron (March 26, 2012)
Victor Vescovo (April 28, 2019, May 1, 2019, May 7, 2019, June 6, 2020, June 11, 2020, June 13, 2020, June 20, 2020)
Patrick Lahey (May 3, 2019, May 5, 2019)
Jonathan Struwe (May 3, 2019)
John Ramsay (May 5, 2019)
Alan Jamieson (May 7, 2019)
Kathy Sullivan (June 6, 2020)
Vanessa O'Brien (June 11, 2020)
John Rost (June 13, 2020)
Kelly Walsh (June 20, 2020)
(Note: Of the 12, 11 dove to Challenger Deep; Jamieson dove to the slightly shallower Sirena Deep, accompanied by Vescovo.)
Sullivan's dive was accompanied by an Omega chronograph, though not on her wrist. From Victor Vescovo (via Twitter):
During our dive to the bottom of Challenger Deep Sunday (June 7), there was another passenger outside: Omega's Seamaster Planet Ocean Ultra Deep Professional. It is now the only watch in history to have visited the bottom of the ocean more than once, and it came back working perfectly.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 45092 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
When astronauts aboard the International Space Station call down to Earth, they refer to it as "space to ground."
For a call they made on June 7, however, a slightly different term was merited.
"This is Chris Cassidy, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on the International Space Station, wonderful to hear you and connect from space to the surface," the NASA astronauts radioed to the DSSV Pressure Drop, the support ship for the world's first and only commercially-certified, full-ocean-depth deep submergence vehicle, or DSV.
"It's great to connect with you," replied Kathy Sullivan, who only hours earlier had returned from diving to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth. "Victor Vescovo, the pilot of the [DSV] Limiting Factor, and I are back on the surface ship at this point."
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 45092 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 11-24-2020 08:15 PM
Kathy Sullivan's dive has qualified her for three Guinness World Records:
...her voyages to space and, more recently in June 2020, the most extreme depths of the ocean, would make history, earning her three Guinness World Records titles:
First woman to reach the Challenger Deep
Greatest vertical extent travelled by an individual (within Earth’s exosphere)
First person to visit space and the deepest point on Earth
posted 06-08-2020 12:15 AM
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