Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

The New Shepard NS-21 astronauts at apogee. Left to right: Victor Vescovo (upper left), Victor Correa Hespanha (lower left), Katya Echazarreta, Hamish Harding, Jaison Robinson, and Evan Dick. (June 4, 2022).
Image credit: Blue Origin

That missing submersible geared to visit the final resting spot for the Titanic has several links to space exploration and public space travel.

Onboard the tourist submarine is Hamish Harding who flew on Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocketship in June 2022.

Back on land, the crew of NS-21. Image credit: Blue Origin

Harding also joined Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin to the South Pole in 2016, accompanying Aldrin as the moonwalker became the oldest person, at 86, to touchdown in the Antarctic.

In another space-related tie to the feared loss of the submersible, Alan Stern of the NASA New Horizon mission that explored Pluto and beyond, made a similar voyage to the Titanic in July 2022. On that dive, Stern was with two Blue Origin suborbital space crewmates: Dylan Taylor and Evan Dick.

I wrote about Stern and his voyage to the Titanic via OceanGate’s submersible here at:

https://www.space.com/pluto-explorer-dive-titanic

Here’s hoping the OceanGate Expeditions vessel and its five-person team are rescued after their harrowing lost-at-sea ordeal.