Titan owner Rush claimed NASA helped develop the carbon fiber hull; Agency has a different story

Stockton Rush, the OceanGate co-founder and CEO of the ill-fated Titan submersible, claimed the deep submersible’s carbon fiber hull was developed with help from NASA and aerospace manufacturers.

However, a NASA official said it had little involvement in the process.

A representative from Boeing also spoke out and said the aerospace manufacturer’s recommendations had been ignored.

Justin Jackson, a materials engineer at NASA, said the agency planned to play a role in building and testing the carbon fiber fuselage, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it from fulfilling that role.

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Instead, NASA consulted with OceanGate about a one-third scale model of the Titan, not the actual submersible that imploded with five people, including Rush, on board while descending to the Titanic wreckage on June 18, 2023.

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Jackson spoke about the relationship between NASA and OceanGate in a hearing with the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) on Thursday, saying NASA was reluctant to allow Rush’s company to use its name.

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“The language they used was too close to our support, giving our people heartburn,” Jackson told MBI during a hearing. The hearing was part of an investigation into what caused the Titan to implode beneath the surface off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

Earlier in the process, Boeing was also reportedly involved in a feasibility study examining the use of carbon fiber for the Titan’s hull and for the ship’s OceanGate acoustic sensors.

Mark Negley, a materials and process engineer at Boeing, said OceanGate veered away from Boeing’s recommendations on fuselage thickness and orientation of carbon fiber layers that would provide the most strength.

Coast Guard officials said at the start of the MBI hearing earlier this month that the ship had not undergone an independent inspection in accordance with standard practice before traveling to the ocean floor.

The ship’s design has also come under scrutiny from members of the underwater research community.

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Coast Guard Marine Inspector John Winters testified Thursday that Rush opposed regulations that he said stifled innovation, although he never tried to circumvent regulations set by the Coast Guard.

Winters told the panel that he knew of two other submersibles OceanGate was using before learning that OceanGate had created a new vessel that could go deeper to reach the Titanic.

He said he didn’t know whether the company notified the Coast Guard about Titan’s construction or whether it asked the Coast Guard for advice.

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“We didn’t address what standards it was built to and who built it. None of this was discussed,” Winters said. “It was just, ‘Hey, we have a submarine. It is enough for 4,000 meters. We now have a submarine for that.’”

More witnesses are expected to testify during the hearing, which runs through Friday.

The ongoing MBI investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard.

Once completed, the recommendations will be presented to the Coast Guard Commandant.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating.

Louis Casiano of Fox News Digital and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Original source of the article: Titan owner Rush claimed NASA helped develop the carbon fiber hull; Agency has a different story