At 68, Kathy Sullivan can boast of having been both high and low. Literally. This NASA geologist and astronaut became, in 1984, the first American woman to walk through space. That was one of three manned missions he participated in during his astronaut career, in which he took a spacewalk with David Leestma to conduct a satellite refueling demonstration. Sullivan would return to space in 1990, aboard STS-Discovery, to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope and carry out a wide variety of science experiments. His last trip to space would be two years later on NASA’s first Spacelab mission.
Journey to the depths of the ocean
Nearly forty years have passed, but Sullivan’s exploratory spirit remains intact, as evidenced by his most recent feat: On June 7, he became one of only eight people in the world to have set foot on the deepest known point in the ocean. We are talking about the Challenger chasm, located in the Mariana Trench and almost eleven kilometers deep. The ex-astronaut made the descent with veteran explorer Victor Vescovo, who also financed the expedition, in a submersible called Factor Limitator , specially designed to withstand more than two tons of pressure on its titanium hull, and it is also the first submarine that it has descended several times to the bottom of the ocean.
Sullivan and Vescovo spent about an hour and a half at the Challenger Pit, taking photos from the submarine, before beginning the ascent, which would take another four hours.
A call to the International Space Station
Once back on the surface, the pair of explorers contacted their companions from the International Space Station (ISS). “As a hybrid between astronaut and oceanographer, this has been an extraordinary day, once in my life, contemplating the lunar landscape of the Challenger Abyss and then sharing impressions with my colleagues from the ISS, our reusable spacecraft from outer space,” explained Sullivan a statement from EYOS Expeditions, the company that organized the trip.
“Today we have done a bit of history, and then we shared the experience with twin spirits of the ISS,” Vescovo wrote in the statement. “It was a pleasure to have Kathy in her role as oceanographer during the dive and as an astronaut during contact with the ISS .” Vescovo was, in turn, the first person in history to reach the five deepest points in the ocean.
“It was amazing to have a conversation between the two spacecraft: one operates as a platform for outer space research, the other as an ‘inner’ space exploration vehicle,” explained Rob McCallum, expedition chief for EYOS. “Two groups of humans using cutting edge technology to explore the outer edges of our world.”
Throughout his professional career, Sullivan has conducted numerous oceanographic expeditions and has served in the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
