Trieste Descends Despite Cracked Window

The first crewed vessel to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench was the bathyscaphe Trieste. During its descent on January 23, 1960, an outer Plexiglas window pane cracked after the vessel passed 9,000 meters, shaking the entire craft. Pilots Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh continued and successfully reached Challenger Deep at a depth of approximately 10,916 meters, where they spent 20 minutes on the ocean floor.

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