A former astronaut has become the first woman to reach Challenger Deep, the lowest known point on Earth.
Kathy Sullivan, 68, was safely aboard the expedition ship DSSV Pressure Drop in the Pacific last night after diving about 36,000ft (about 11,000 metres or 6.8 miles) below the surface in a submersible named Limiting Factor.
She and the submersible’s chief pilot, Victor Vescovo, 54, a retired US navy officer, celebrated their return by calling the International Space Station. “As a hybrid oceanographer and astronaut this was a once in a lifetime day — seeing the moonscape of the Challenger Deep and then comparing notes with my colleagues on the ISS about our remarkable, reusable, inner-space outer-spacecraft,” she said last night.
In 1984, as a
