$125K Will Now Get You to the Titanic

Expeditions open to tourists to launch in May
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 6, 2020 9:45 AM CST
Titanic Visits for Tourists to Launch in May
This 2004 image provided by the University of Rhode Island's Institute for Exploration and Center for Archaeological Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean Exploration shows the shoes of one of the possible victims of the Titanic disaster.   (Institute for Exploration and Center for Archaeological Oceanography/University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration via AP)

A few dozen wealthy and adventurous tourists will be among the first in 15 years to set eyes on the world's most famous shipwreck. OceanGate Expeditions will be ferrying tourists to the wreck of the Titanic annually between May and September beginning next year—at a cost. For $125,000, guests will descend 2.4 miles to the wreck in a submarine with a 21-inch circular window for a six- to eight-hour viewing experience, reports the Telegraph. But they'll also be put to work assisting experts, who plan to catalogue artifacts and sea creatures and creating a 3D model of the site, which only a few hundred people have visited since the ship sank in 1912, per Gizmodo. Nine tourists at a time will sail 370 miles southeast of Newfoundland to a support vessel where they'll join as many as 60 researchers for an eight-day excursion.

A pilot, a scientist, and three tourists or "mission specialists" at a time will descend in the sub owned by OceanGate Expeditions president Stockton Rush. He's hoping to turn a profit while making research strides, which means charging each participant at least $100,000, he tells Bloomberg. He notes of the 36 people who've signed up for the first six expeditions in 2021, half are also booked for $250,000 space flights with Virgin Galactic. Other interested parties will need to complete an in-depth application, potentially to be followed by a video interview. But whether the missions will go forward as planned depends on numerous factors. The expedition was called off due to issues with the sub in 2018 and issues with a vendor in 2019. (There's a new theory on how the Titanic sank.)

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