Kathy Sullivan - first man in space and deepest place on Earth

American astronaut Dr Kathy Sullivan has become the first human to be in space and to visit the deepest place on our planet. On 6 June, the former NASA astronaut together with Victor Vescovo reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest place in the Mariana Trench. In doing so, the first woman to undertake a space walk also became the first woman in the deepest place on Earth.

The journey to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean organised as part of the ‘Ring of Fire’ expedition by Victor Vescovo’s Caladan Oceanic company is a wonderful bracket that ties together the story written by Dr Kathy Sullivan. For this year marks the 36th anniversary of her achievement when she disembarked the space shuttle Challenger and went on a space walk, becoming the first woman to do so.

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“To the Challenger Deep and back! 10915m on our depth gauge!” – briefly commented the entire feat on her Facebook Sullivan

It is interesting that both the ocean depths and the space shuttle are named after the British ship HMS Challenger, from which the first measurement of the deepest place on Earth was made in 1875. Life has shown time and time again that it can write amazing scripts and this truly cinematic story, bringing all the threads together, is a wonderful example of that.

This is where the extraordinary story doesn’t end! Caladan Oceanic, in a series of 8 dives conducted into the Challenger Deep, intends to observe underwater volcanic vents, identify new species of marine creatures and, at the request of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), map the ocean floor. Among the members of the research team is Kelly Walsh, son of Don Walsh, who 60 years ago together with Jaques Piccard was the first to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

“My goal and drive during all those years of gaining specialist training and subsequent experience was the desire… to go down and see the deepest places in the world. That’s where it was going until NASA came along,” said Dr Sullivan, during a lecture on the history of NASA in 2007

^{Source: Caldan Oceanic}