Founded a company to explore deep waters.

OceanGate, the owner of the missing submarine, is a private company headquartered in Everett, Washington that has focused on increasing access to deep-sea research since its founding in 2009.

The company has made headlines in recent years for organizing expeditions for paying tourists to travel in submersibles to shipwrecks, including the Titanic, and to underwater canyons. According to the company’s websiteOceanGate also provides manned submersibles for commercial projects and scientific research.

Our team of qualified pilots, expedition leaders, mission professionals and customer service personnel ensures accountability throughout the mission and expedition process with a focus on safety, proactive communication and customer satisfaction. is reading.

OceanGate was founded by Stockton Rush, an aerospace engineer and pilot, who currently serves as chief executive officer.

At just 19 years old, in 1981, Mr. Rush became the youngest pilot with jet transport rating in the world, and earned a degree in aerospace engineering from Princeton University three years later, according to the OceanGate website. He later received an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.

OceanGate currently owns and operates three five-person submarines.

The first submarine acquired by OceanGate, Antipodes, could travel to a depth of 300 feet.

In 2012, the company acquired another submarine and converted it into Cyclops 1, a ship that could travel to a depth of 500 meters. It served as a prototype for the newest submarine, the Titan. That ship, made of carbon fiber and titanium, is designed to reach depths of more than 13,000 feet, or more than two miles. The Titan, which was used to explore the Titanic’s wreckage, is now missing.

OceanGate has been providing tours of the Titanic since 2021, with guests paying up to $250,000 to travel to the wreck, which lies about 4,000 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Last year, Mr. Rush described the company to CBS news as “very unusual”, offering “a new kind of travel”.

According to the technology news site, the company first planned a trip to the Titanic in 2018 GeekWire, but the Titan suffered damage to its electronics from lightning. Then, in 2019, the trip was postponed again due to a problem with complying with Canadian maritime law restrictions on foreign-flagged vessels, said GeekWire.

Ahead of the first successful voyage to the Titanic in 2021, the Titan was “rebuilt”, according to this GeekWireafter tests showed signs of “cyclic fatigue” that reduced the depth of the hull to 3,000 metres.

In 2020, OceanGate announced that it was work with NASAMarshall Space Flight Center to ensure the submarine was strong enough to survive the depths of the ocean.

According to the company’s website, OceanGate has successfully completed more than 14 expeditions and more than 200 dives in the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Ocean Gates board members including Mr. Rush, along with a doctor and astronaut, a software consultant, a retired U.S. Coast Guard, and a CEO of an investment consulting firm.

In addition to OceanGate, Mr. Rush also co-founded and served on the board of directors Ocean Gate Foundationa non-profit organization founded in 2012 that aims to “foster underwater discoveries in nautical archaeology, marine science and submarine technology” through public outreach and financial support.

The nonprofit’s website features OceanGate’s Titanic Expedition, along with other global exploration expeditions.