First the stars ...now the deep Female astronaut, 68, makes history in ocean dive
THE first American woman to walk in space has become the first woman to dive to the deepest known spot on Earth.
Kathy Sullivan, 68, who reached a depth of 35,810ft, known as Challenger Deep, is the eighth person to complete the feat.
The first two were Don Walsh and Jacques Picard in 1960, and later film director James Cameron in 2012.
She was joined in the western Pacific Ocean by Victor Vescovo, an explorer funding the mission.
They spent about 1hr 30min 6.78 miles down in the Mariana Trench, 200 miles southwest of Guam.
After taking pictures from the deep-sea research submersible, named the Limiting Factor, it took them four hours to resurface.
The sub is the first to go repeatedly to the deepest point in the ocean.
Only specialised microorganisms can survive the pressure, darkness and almost freezing temperatures.
Once back on board their support vessel, DSSV Pressure Drop, the pair called a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station, around 254 miles above the Earth.
“As we glided along the ocean floor, it reminded me of video clips from astronauts flying over the lunar surface. ‘Moonscape’ was the word that kept coming back to me – like I was seeing the moon right here on our own planet,” she said.
“As a hybrid oceanographer and astronaut, this was an extraordinary day, a once-ina-lifetime day, seeing the moonscape of the Challenger Deep and then comparing notes with my colleagues on the ISS about our remarkable reusable innerspace outer-spacecraft.”
The ISS orbits in zero pressure while Limiting Factor tackles the equivalent of 2,200 tons of pressure.
In 1978, Dr Sullivan joined NASA as part of the first group of astronauts to include women. On October 11, 1984, she became the first US woman to walk in space.
She orbited the Earth 356 times, travelling 8.6 million miles.
6.8 Depth in miles of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean