Endeavor Human

On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh descended into Challenger Deep aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste, entering a place nearly seven miles beneath the Pacific where the pressure exceeds a thousand atmospheres. Hours into the dive, a deep bang rolled through the vehicle. The instruments still looked normal, so they kept going.

This episode of Endeavor Human tells the story of the machine, the people, and the engineering that made the descent possible, from Auguste Piccard’s original bathyscaphe concept to Project Nekton, the tense journey downward, and the moment Trieste reached the deepest known point in the ocean.

It is a story about exploration in the opposite direction: into darkness, pressure, uncertainty, and one of the most unreachable places on Earth.

01 — The First Picture From Space

On October 24, 1946, a V-2 rocket climbed more than 65 miles above the New Mexico desert carrying a 35mm camera. Minutes later, the rocket slammed back into Earth. The camera was destroyed, but a steel cassette containing the film survived.

What it captured was something no camera had photographed before: Earth from space.

In this pilot episode of Endeavor Human, we explore the remarkable achievement, the people behind it, and the complicated history of the weapon that made it possible.

Endeavor Human explores human achievement: the successes, the failures, the breakthroughs, and the people who keep endeavoring.

Production Note: This episode was written, researched, narrated, edited, and produced by Nick Guerra with research and production assistance from AI tools. Original music and select sound effects were created using AI-assisted production tools.