Underwater Research and Exploration

Divers engaging in marine research, filming wildlife, and studying aquatic life in different underwater environments, showcasing technology and nature.

diver scuba diving around the coral reef

Great white shark and divers, Guadalupe Island, Mexico.

STS-37 Atlantis, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 104, Mission Specialist (MS) Jerry L. Ross generates electrical power using hand pedals to move crew and equipment translation aid (CETA) cart along a rail during underwater session in JSC's Weightless Environment Training Facility (WETF) Bldg 29. Wearing an extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), Ross operates CETA electrical cart as MS Jerome Apt holds onto the back of the cart. The two crewmembers are practicing a extravehicular activity (EVA) spacewalk they will perform in OV-104's payload bay during STS-37. CETA is a type of railroad hand cart planned as a spacewalker's transportation system along the truss of Space Station Freedom (SSF). SCUBA divers monitor astronauts' underwater activity.

Underwater photographer making notes of his last shots

Giant sponge showing how it filters water with the use of dye, Dominica, West Indies, Caribbean, Central America

PHOTO DATE: 04-23-13LOCATION: NBL - Pool Topside SUBJECT: Astronaut Expedition 39/40 (Soyuz 38) astronaut Steve Swanson during ISS Maintenance EVAAT at the NBL.

Mexico, Cozumel, Reef monitoring system with Parque Nacional volunteers and staff

Bob Ballard Exploration

Diver at night surrounded by orange cup corals at the Superior Producer wreck dive site, looking at sponge. Tubastraea coccinea. Superior Producer, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. . .

Scuba divers in a cage observing a Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias), Guadalupe Island, Mexico, Pacific, North America, Central America

Cave Diver, Cave Diving

Divers collecting a California Spiny Lobster, Panulirus interruptus, California, Pacific Ocean

Long snouted lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox, lateral view. Composite image. Portugal

Diver at the bottom of an underwater cave 75 metres deep and which has been flooded for thousands of years (- 20 000 years). Mayotte

Diver working on pearls farm

Tectonic fault edge under water, Djibouti, Djibouti, Africa, Afar Triangle, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Tadjourah, Africa

Vintage Photograph. Exploring vibrant underwater shipwrecks teeming with marine life.

Diver in shark cage, Mexico, Pacific Ocean, Guadalupe, Central America

Diver-Researcher at the Nice Institute of Chemistry collecting sponges in an attempt to extract bioactive molecules, potentially valuable in the therapeutic field (anti-infectives, anticancer), off Mdic, Morocco. Scientific mission.

International Space Station testing is conducted in Marshall's Neutral Buoyancy Simulator (NBS).

Diver examining the sandstone structure of the Yonaguni undersea monument, Yonaguni, East China Sea, Japan. February 2014.

neutral buoyancy

Diver enveloped in a cloud of Silversides (Atherina presbyter). It's during the night that they are attracted by the light source of our lamps. Feeling struck by thousands of tiny fish is a unique experience, but one that can be frightening, despite their small size. In this delirium, they hit you all over the body, as if they were bullets. They go everywhere... between your fingers, in your vest and even some in your regulator.

Backup divers and astronauts practicing with a space station module reproduction in a diving basin, European Space Agency, ESA, European Astronaut Center, EAC, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Pacific Giant Octopus (Octopus dofleini) being weighed and tagged by biologist Jim Cosgrove, British Columbia, Canada

Underwater training is conducted in Marshall's Neutral Buoyancy Simulator (NBS) in preparation for on-orbit Hubble Space Telescope operations.

Divers exploring the mysterious depths of an underwater wreck

Diver explores Jacque Cousteau's Precontinent 2, Sudan, Africa, Red Sea, Shaab Rhumi, Africa

Cornetfish

Scub diver with an underwater camera, underwater photographer, observing Yellow Tube Sponge (Aplysina fistularis), Little Tobago, Speyside, Trinidad and Tobago, Lesser Antilles, Caribbean Sea, Central America

Box jellyfish, Aurelia aurita, Egypt, Sha'ab Shouna, Red Sea, Africa

Scuba diver looking at a Tentacled Flathead (Papilloculiceps longiceps), at the SS Thistlegorm shipwreck, Red Sea, Egypt, Africa

Videosub in action

Personnel from Global Diving and Salvage conduct operations to remove pollution threats from the ferry vessel Tourist No. 2 in Astoria, Oregon, Aug. 4, 2022. The final disposition of the vessel will be coordinated through the Oregon Department of State lands, in conjunction with the City of Astoria and the owner.

Pilot fish (Naucrates ductor), under the "BOUee pour l'acquiSition d'une Serie Optique a Long termE" : Boussole (Buoy for the acquisition of a long-term optical series) installed since 2003 60 km off the City of Nice, France

Etruscan Amphora in a protected archaeological area on the sea bed in Antalya Turkey. Mediterranean Sea. The amphora will remain on the sea bed.

Support teams work around the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and Victor Glover, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, Sunday, May 2, 2021. NASAs SpaceX Crew-1 mission was the first crew rotation flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket with astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the agencys Commercial Crew Program.

Dr. Sylvia Earle

Apnoea diver Benjamin Franz

Artemis I Orion Recovery Operations. NASAs Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission was successfully recovered inside the well deck of the USS Portland on Dec. 11, 2022 off the coast of Baja California. After launching atop the Space Launch System rocket on Nov. 16, 2022 from the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Orion spent 25.5 days in space before returning to Earth, completing the Artemis I mission.

Scuba diver exploring a splendid mosaic (tessellatum) in black and white decorated with a pattern of hexagons, perfectly preserved, Villa a Protiro, Marine Protected Area of Baia, Naples, Italy, Tyrrhenian Sea

A module of a space station descending into a diving basin, European Space Agency, ESA, European Astronaut Center, EAC, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Artemis I Orion Recovery Operations. NASAs Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission was successfully recovered inside the well deck of the USS Portland on Dec. 11, 2022 off the coast of Baja California. After launching atop the Space Launch System rocket on Nov. 16, 2022 from the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Orion spent 25.5 days in space before returning to Earth, completing the Artemis I mission.

A module of a space station reproduction in a diving basin, backup divers carefully examine the space station, European Space Agency, ESA, European Astronaut Center, EAC, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Marine biologist inspecting and cleaning sea algae from Thin Leaf Lettuce coral (Agaricia tenuifolia) in a coral farm, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Underwater view of scuba divers

Diver exploring a plane wreck, purposely sunk in a freshwater lake, Capernwray Quarry, Lancashire, England, UK. Model released.

Artwork of UFO under water

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. White smoky vent fluid rises out of small sulfur chimneys at Northwest Eifuku volcano. This area was named Champagne vent because bubbles of liquid CO2 were rising out of the seafloor.

Diver with underwater lamp swimming under Jacques-Yves Cousteau's underwater house from underwater settlement Precontinent II from 1963, Red Sea, reef Shaab Rumi, Sudan, Africa

Giant squid. Remains of a squid of the genus Architeuthis found drifting dead (probably attacked and eaten in part by a pilot whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus). It is a species that lives at great depths (+500 m) and on very few occasions has it been possible to film or photograph it alive. Tenerife, Canary Islands.

Venus belt ribbed jellyfish, Cestum veneris, Socorro, Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico, Central America

Illustration of sperm whale

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Onboard the dive boat at the Life Support Buoy offshore from Key Largo is Marc Reagan, mission lead for the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 6 (NEEMO-6) mission. At right is Lt. Scott Sparks, a Navy medical officer. Reagan is also the underwater still photographer. The NEEMO-6 team comprises John Herrington, commander, Tara Ruttley, a biomedical engineer, and astronauts Nick Patrick and Doug Wheelock. The NEEMO-6 mission involves exposing an astronaut/scientist crew to a real mission experience in an extreme environment - the NOAA undersea station Aquarius - to prepare for future space flight. Spacewalk-like diving excursions and field-tests on a variety of biomedical equipment are designed to help astronauts living aboard the International Space Station. To prepare for their 10-day stay, the team had dive training twice a day at the Life Support Buoy, anchored above Aquarius.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is lifted onto the SpaceX GO Navigator recovery ship shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. The Demo-2 test flight for NASA's Commercial Crew Program was the first to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and return them safely to Earth onboard a commercially built and operated spacecraft. Behnken and Hurley returned after spending 64 days in space.

sperm whale physeter macrocephalus status vulnerable. ogasawara islands, tokyo, japan.

Recovery team members work to lift a test version of Orion's forward bay cover out of the Pacific Ocean using a crane on board the USS Anchorage on Sept. 16, 2014. NASA and the Navy are working together this week to test tools and techniques that will be used to retrieve the spacecraft once it splashes down following Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1). The forward bay cover protects the top section of Orion's crew module until the spacecraft is almost ready to land. It is jettisoned to allow Orion's parachutes to deploy and must be recovered separately from the crew module. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

Diver posing with a red Sea star bringing contrast to the image

Underwater pond formed from sources with different density than marine. CNR volcanology research. Aeolian Islands. Sicily. Italy. (Photo by: Giorgio Mesturini/REDA&CO/UIG)

Diver with a soptlight behind a tube sponge, Aplysina fistularis, Caribbean.

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Barry Butch” Wilmore rehearse the steps they would take to exit Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft without assistance in the unlikely event of an emergency resulting in a splashdown. The training exercise, which occurred April 27, 2019, took place several miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It included the astronauts unloading a rescue raft from inside the spacecraft, climbing out through a hatch at the top of the spacecraft, jumping into the Atlantic Ocean and boarding the raft. This open-ocean exercise provides the astronauts with the necessary training ahead of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test and subsequent missions. During normal return scenarios, Boeing’s Starliner will land in a safe zone of about 15 square miles in the Western United States. Throughout the commercial crew development phases with NASA, Boeing has performed dozens of qualification tests on its parachute and airbag systems simulating con

Artificial coral reef frames for coral recolonisation, and ecosystem creation, Semporna Straits, Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo.

Artemis II Orion Underway Recovery Test 10 (URT-10) - Day 2. The Crew Module Test Article (CMTA) is seen in the waters of the Pacific Ocean during NASAs Underway Recovery Test 10 (URT-10). The CMTA is a full-scale mockup of the Orion spacecraft and is used by NASA and its Department of Defense partners to practice recovery procedures for crewed Artemis missions. URT-10 is the first test specifically in support of the Artemis II mission and allowed the team to practice what it will be like to recover astronauts and get them back to the recovery ship safely.

S92-50647 (Dec 1992) --- Assisted by two SCUBA-equipped divers, astronaut Charles J. Precourt, mission specialist for the STS-55/D-2 mission, participates in bailout training at the Johnson Space Center's (JSC) Weightless Environment and Training Facility (WET-F). Precourt is attired in a training version of the partial pressure Shuttle launch and entry garment. All seven prime flight crewmembers and the two backup payload specialists participated in the training session.

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. White flocculent mats in and around the extremely gassy high temperature (>100øC) white smokers at the Champagne Vent Site.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Underwater research equipment slowly sinks into the water. An undersea expedition is underway to characterize the condition of the deep-sea coral reefs and reef fish populations in the Oculina Banks, a marine protected area, 20 miles offshore of the east coast of Florida. The equipment includes an underwater robot, a seafloor sampler, and the Passive Acoustic Monitoring System (PAMS), originally developed by NASA to monitor the impact of rocket launches on wildlife refuge lagoons at KSC. The research is sponsored by NOAA Fisheries and will take place onboard the Liberty Star. The ship departed from Port Canaveral April 29 and will return May 9.

Apnoea diver Benjamin Franz

Underwater treasure, Russian coins of the Siberian stamping of times of empress Ekaterina II. Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russian Federation, Eurasia

On June 28, 2011, Holley Kelly, a teacher from Farragut High School, helped retrieve the CTD/Rosette ensemble from the Bering Strait, east of the Diomede Islands.The ICESCAPE mission, or "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment," is NASA's two-year shipborne investigation to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems. The bulk of the research takes place in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in summer 2010 and 2011.

DN-ST-90-04384. Country: Unknown

Tylosaurus tries to feed on some ammonites.

Oceanic Blue Shark - Diver testing Chain Mail / Stainless Steel mesh protective Suit (Prionace glauca). Eastern Pacific. Distribution: Tropical and Temperate waters, Worldwide.

Vintage Photograph. Deep-sea diver in Aquarium. Frame 2

Members of the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) Flight Test team perform a drop test of data recording devices about 10 miles off the coast of NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018. These devices, called Ejectable Data Recorders (EDRs), were tossed out of a helicopter hovering 5,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean and retrieved by recovery boats. The AA-2 Flight Test team is evaluating how the systems in the devices react to elements encountered from the sky to the ocean. In April 2019, the EDRs will eject from the Orion test article during a scheduled test of the spacecrafts Launch Abort System (LAS).

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The Orion boilerplate test vehicle is being lifted by stationary crane off the side of the USS Salvor, a safeguard-class rescue and salvage ship, during Underway Recovery Test 4A in the Pacific Ocean. NASA, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy are conducting crane recovery tests to prepare for recovery of the Orion crew module on its return from a deep space mission. The underway recovery test will allow the teams to demonstrate and evaluate the recovery processes, procedures, new hardware and personnel in open waters.The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program is conducting the underway recovery test. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The first unpiloted test flight of the Orion is scheduled to launch in December 2

Members of the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) Flight Test team perform a drop test of data recording devices about 10 miles off the coast of NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018. These devices, called Ejectable Data Recorders (EDRs), were tossed out of a helicopter hovering 5,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean and retrieved by recovery boats. The AA-2 Flight Test team is evaluating how the systems in the devices react to elements encountered from the sky to the ocean. In April 2019, the EDRs will eject from the Orion test article during a scheduled test of the spacecrafts Launch Abort System (LAS).

Recovery team members lower a test version of Orion into the Pacific Ocean using a crane on board the Navy's USS Salvor on Sept. 13, 2014. A combined NASA and U.S. Navy team practiced recovery techniques off the coast of California over the course of the next week -- first with the crane, as seen here, then using the USS Anchorage's well deck -- in preparation for Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1). Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

Artemis I Orion Recovery Operations. NASAs Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission was successfully recovered inside the well deck of the USS Portland on Dec. 11, 2022 off the coast of Baja California. After launching atop the Space Launch System rocket on Nov. 16, 2022 from the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Orion spent 25.5 days in space before returning to Earth, completing the Artemis I mission.

Orion recovery training and operations continue in the Pacific Ocean on Sept. 14, 2014. NASA and the Navy team on board the USS Salvor are evaluating procedures for pulling a test version of the spacecraft out of the ocean using the ship's crane. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

Artemis I Orion Recovery Operations. NASAs Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission was successfully recovered inside the well deck of the USS Portland on Dec. 11, 2022 off the coast of Baja California. After launching atop the Space Launch System rocket on Nov. 16, 2022 from the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Orion spent 25.5 days in space before returning to Earth, completing the Artemis I mission.

Researchers test efficiency of Turtle Exclusion Device, Florida

Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) researcher Hal Whitehead listening to vocalizations on hydrophone, Sri Lanka

Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) researcher tracking whales, Nova Scotia, Canada

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Barry Butch” Wilmore rehearse the steps they would take to exit Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft without assistance in the unlikely event of an emergency resulting in a splashdown. The training exercise, which occurred April 27, 2019, took place several miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It included the astronauts unloading a rescue raft from inside the spacecraft, climbing out through a hatch at the top of the spacecraft, jumping into the Atlantic Ocean and boarding the raft. This open-ocean exercise provides the astronauts with the necessary training ahead of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test and subsequent missions. During normal return scenarios, Boeing’s Starliner will land in a safe zone of about 15 square miles in the Western United States. Throughout the commercial crew development phases with NASA, Boeing has performed dozens of qualification tests on its parachute and airbag systems simulating con

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United Space Alliance Recovery Operations divers and personnel approach the vertically floating Ares I-X first stage following the launch of the flight test mission as the solid rocket booster recovery ship Freedom Star stands by to tow it back to the center.Liftoff of the 6-minute flight test was at 11:30 a.m. EDT Oct. 28. This was the first launch from Kennedy's pads of a vehicle other than the space shuttle since the Apollo Program's Saturn rockets were retired. The parts used to make the Ares I-X booster flew on 30 different shuttle missions ranging from STS-29 in 1989 to STS-106 in 2000. The data returned from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will be used to refine the design of future launch vehicles and bring NASA one step closer to reaching its exploration goals.

Crew members aboard the salvage ship USS PRESERVER (ARS-8) haul a piece of debris aboard the ship during recovery operations for the space shuttle Challenger. Country: Atlantic Ocean (AOC)

NASAs SpaceX Crew-6 Splashdown. Support teams work around the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev aboard in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Monday, Sept. 4,2023. Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev are returning after nearly six-months in space as part of Expedition 69 aboard the International Space Station.

Diver, preparing for subglacial diving, ice diving, in the frozen Black Sea, a rare phenomenon, last time it occured in 1977, Odessa, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Europe

NASA astronaut Victor Glover, and pilot for the agencys SpaceX Crew-1 mission, participates in an egress training exercise on July 21, 2020, in Florida. The exercise involved simulating an emergency situation after splashdown of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Mission specialist Shannon Walker and spacecraft commander Michael Hopkins - both NASA astronauts - also participated in the training, along with Soichi Noguchi, mission specialist and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut. Glover, Walker, Hopkins, and Noguchi will launch to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A at the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crew-1 will be the first operational mission to the orbiting laboratory under NASAs Commercial Crew Program, following the agencys certification of SpaceXs crew transportation system.

Artemis II Orion Underway Recovery Test 10 (URT-10) - Day 3. The Crew Module Test Article (CMTA) is seen in the waters of the Pacific Ocean during NASAs Underway Recovery Test 10 (URT-10). The CMTA is a full-scale mockup of the Orion spacecraft and is used by NASA and its Department of Defense partners to practice recovery procedures for crewed Artemis missions. URT-10 is the first test specifically in support of the Artemis II mission and allowed the team to practice what it will be like to recover astronauts and get them back to the recovery ship safely.

Dwarf Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) researcher Jason Gedamke using hydrophone to track whales, Australia

S73-36401 (25 Sept. 1973) --- A team of U.S. Navy swimmers assists with the recovery of the Skylab 3 Command Module following its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean about 230 miles southwest of San Diego, California. The swimmers had just attached a flotation collar to the spacecraft to improve its buoyancy. Aboard the Command Module were astronauts Alan L. Bean, Owen K. Garriott and Jack R. Lousma, who had just completed a successful 59-day visit to the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. Minutes later the Command Module with the three crewmen still inside was hoisted aboard the prime recovery ship, the USS New Orleans.

A group of large Ichthyosaurus marine reptiles from the Triassic and Jurassic periods.

Divers from the luxury ship t.b.v. Duikbedrijf Hr.Ms. SOEMBA (A891) Underwater in a swimming pool in July 1974.

Biologists from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) test water samples in the main Chesapeake Bay.

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