One mission is bound for the Moon. It’s called Apollo 11. Three astronauts - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins - along with thousands of support personnel, not to mention millions of people around the world, are preparing for a July launch date. The mission: to land on the Moon, gather data, information, and physical samples from the lunar surface, and return safely to Earth.

Preparations for the launch of the other NASA mission, designated PX-15, are also proceeding, but in obscurity. The press and the public are unaware, their attentions riveted elsewhere. The mission is a 30 day drift dive in the Gulf Stream off the East Coast of the U.S. The idea is to explore the Gulf Stream, not by moving in and out of it like a military submarine might do, but to enter it and become part it. The six man crew will seal itself in the 50 foot submersible Ben Franklin, enter the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida, and drift passively in the mainstream of the massive current, gathering scientific data all the way.

The mission leader is a 38 year old Swiss by the name of Jacques Piccard. His father, Auguste Piccard, has already made a record-breaking ascent to the top of the atmosphere in a balloon. He’s also designed the deep-diving submersible Trieste in which Jacques has made an equally record-breaking seven mile descent to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, off the coast of the Philippines. The younger Piccard’s pedigree as an explorer is impeccable. The PX-15/ Ben Franklin mission is his idea, his creation.

Piccard has persuaded Grumman Corporation of the value of the PX-15 mission. Financially anchored by government contracts to build fighter planes, Grumman is willing to invest in the unusual mission. Coincidentally, Grumman has built the LEM for the Apollo 11 Moon mission and now contracts with a Swiss firm to build the Ben Franklin to Piccard’s specifications. Like the LEM, it’s a one-of-a-kind vessel, built to withstand the hostile environment it will traverse. Built in the Swiss Alps, it is disassembled, shipped to Florida, and re-assembled for testing.

The Ben Franklin submersible is designed as a ‘mesoscaphe,’ intended to withstand the pressures of the middle depths, that is down to 2000 feet. (Crush depth is 4000 feet, at which depth the pressure is almost 1800 pound per square inch.) The hull, made of 1 3/8" steel, is 50' long, 10' in diameter, and weighs 130 tons. It’s configured to carry a crew of 6 in relative comfort as it gathers and records data from the dozens of different sensors studding the hull.

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