OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush said the carbon fiber hull used in an experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic was developed with help of NASA and aerospace manufacturers, but a NASA official testified Thursday that the space agency actually had little involvement at all.
OceanGate and NASA partnered in 2020 with NASA planning to play a role in building and testing the carbon fiber hull. But the COVID-19 pandemic prevented NASA from fulfilling its role, other than providing some consulting on an early mockup, not the ultimate carbon fiber hull that was used for people, said Justin Jackson, a materials engineer for NASA.
“We provided remote consultations throughout the build of their one third scale article, but we we did not do any manufacturing or testing of their cylinders,” Jackson said.
At one point, Jackson said NASA declined to allow its name to be invoked in a news release by OceanGate. “The language they were using was getting too close to us endorsing, so our folks had some heartburn with the endorsement level of it,” he told a Coast Guard panel that’s investigating the tragedy.
Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023. The design of the company's Titan submersible has been the source of scrutiny since the disaster.
The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.
Boeing was another company that provided early assistance.
Boeing was involved in a preliminary feasibility study of the use of carbon fiber for the pressure hull and in tests on acoustic sensors used by OceanGate to detect changes in the hull, but declined to work further with OceanGate in 2020, Mark Negley, material and process engineer at Boeing, testified on Thursday.
In the end, OceanGate departed from some of Boeing’s recommendations on the thickness of the carbon fiber hull and orientation of carbon fiber layers for greatest strength, he testified.
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
On Thursday, John Winters, a Coast Guard marine inspector, said he was familiar with two other OceanGate submersibles before learning of a new submersible that could go deeper to reach Titanic.
“We didn’t get into about what standards it was built to, who built it. None of that was discussed,” Winters told the panel. “It was just, hey, ‘we have a submarine. It’s good for 4000 meters. We have a submarine to do that now’ ... Obviously anticipate using it to go to the the Titanic.”
Winters said he was not aware that Oceangate ever notified the Coast Guard about construction of Titan nor asking for assistance on construction standards. OceanGate never requested an inspection, he said.
The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include more witnesses.
Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended, and concern grew on the support ship Polar Prince. One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” the Coast Guard said.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.
OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.
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