Tag: OceanGate

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OceanGate wins more funding for Titanic sub

OceanGate team with Cyclops 2
OceanGate’s workers get into the holiday spirit as they work on the Cyclops 2 submersible at the company’s Everett headquarters. (OceanGate Photo via Twitter)

OceanGate is in the midst of a $5.1 million investment round aimed at pushing the Everett, Wash.-based company closer to a Titanic undersea adventure.

The round was reported today in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Joel Perry, OceanGate’s director of media and marketing, told GeekWire that the privately held company’s existing investors have already filled out much of the funding. He declined to identify the investors.

The money will give OceanGate “a little more runway” as it finishes work on its Cyclops 2 deep-sea submersible, Perry said.

OceanGate’s team has nearly completed construction of Cyclops 2 at the company’s Everett marina workshop. Perry said the pressure vessel underwent testing this week to make sure there were no leaks.

“It’s a perfect seal,” Perry said.

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OceanGate gets Titanic sub ready for the holidays

Cyclops 2 sub viewport
A scale model of the Titanic luxury liner sits on the other side of the clear acrylic viewport and titanium dome that’s due to be installed on the Cyclops 2 submersible at OceanGate’s headquarters in Everett. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

EVERETT, Wash. — Almost all the pieces are in place for a Yuletide delivery of Titanic proportions: the completion of a multimillion-dollar underwater craft that’s due to explore the world’s most famous shipwreck next year.

Cyclops 2, a five-person submersible that takes advantage of the latest in marine engineering, is taking shape at OceanGate Inc.’s headquarters on Everett’s waterfront.

“The goal is to have it in the water by the end of the year,” said Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s CEO and co-founder.

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Peek inside OceanGate’s Titanic sub factory

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush is framed by a carbon-composite cylinder that will serve as the heart of the Cyclops 2 submersible. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

EVERETT, Wash. — Today it looks like an eight-foot-long section of culvert pipe, but in just a couple of months, the carbon-fiber cylinder sitting on OceanGate’s shop floor will serve as the heart of a five-person submersible that’s destined to visit the Titanic, the world’s most famous shipwreck.

The Cyclops 2 submersible and its future mission represent the culmination of an eight-year-old dream for Stockton Rush, the Everett-based company’s co-founder and CEO.

“The whole project from Day One was to go deep. … Three years ago, it became pretty clear that the real market opportunity was the Titanic,” Rush told GeekWire on Sept.22 during a company open house.

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OceanGate hits milestone in Titanic effort

OceanGate Cyclops 2 cylinder
Workers survey the scene after a titanium ring is placed on the carbon fiber wound cylinder for Cyclops 2’s pressure vessel. (OceanGate Photo)

OceanGate says it’s completed assembly of the core pressure vessel for its Cyclops 2 submersible vehicle, which is due to take on the first crewed scientific expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in years.

The privately held company, based in Everett, Wash., said in a news release that it’s finished bonding two titanium rings to the ends of a 56-inch-wide, 100-inch-long carbon-fiber cylinder, thus forming the core of the pressure vessel.

Tony Nissen, OceanGate’s director of engineering, said bonding the rings to the cylinder marked a “major milestone” in the construction of Cyclops 2.

“The precision we achieved guarantees that we have a solid foundation to work with as we continue assembly of the sub,” he said.

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OceanGate plans trips to the Titanic in 2018

Titanic wreck
An artist’s conception shows OceanGate’s Cyclops 2 submersible surveying the wreck of the Titanic. (Andrea Gatti Illustration for OceanGate Expeditions)

OceanGate Expeditions says it’s planning the first crewed scientific expedition to study the wreck of the RMS Titanic in more than a decade.

The expedition team will use OceanGate’s state-of-the-art submersible, the Cyclops 2, and the latest in subsea imaging technology to assess the condition of the disintegrating shipwreck and document artifacts in the debris field.

OceanGate Expeditions is the exploration subsidiary of OceanGate Inc., based in Everett, Wash. The venture brings together explorers, scientists and filmmakers to document iconic shipwrecks, hydrothermal vents and other deep-sea curiosities.

Last year, OceanGate led an expedition to document the wreck of the Andrea Doria, an Italian ocean liner that sank more than 60 years ago off the Massachusetts coast.

Next year’s seven-week Titanic expedition, which is due to begin in May 2018, is envisioned as the first in a series of annual surveys of the Atlantic Ocean’s most famous shipwreck.

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