Gregorio Sablan: “Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the author of House Resolution 1027 to ask Members to join together to celebrate one of the…”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the author of House Resolution 1027 to ask Members to join together to celebrate one of the most historic scientific achievements in our Nation's history, and certainly one of the most daringly courageous feats of exploration in all of human history. Fifty years ago on January 23, 1960, the United States Navy submersible Trieste, piloted by U.S. Navy captain Don Walsh and by Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard, dove 36,000 feet to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest known part of our world's oceans. The Trieste dive--a manned descent into the Challenger Deep--has never been repeated, and on only two occasions has an unmanned vehicle penetrated into this abyss during the last 50 years. Just think about that. Over the last 50 years, responding to President Kennedy's challenge to put men on the Moon, 12 Americans made that incredible journey, reached that destination and put foot on the lunar surface.”