The mission was the final goal for Project Nekton, a series of dives conducted by the United States Navy in the Pacific Ocean near Guam. In 1960, it became the first crewed vessel to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in Earth's seabed. Trieste is a Swiss-designed, Italian-built deep-diving research bathyscaphe. Trieste shortly after her purchase by the US Navy in 1958Īcciaierie Terni/ Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico
