Victor Lance Vescovo (born 1966) is an American private equity investor, retired naval officer,

space tourist Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...

and undersea explorer. He is a co-founder and managing partner of

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

company Insight Equity Holdings. Vescovo achieved the

Explorers Grand Slam The Explorer's Grand Slam is an adventurer goal to reach the North Pole and South Pole, as well as climb the Seven Summits (Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, and Puncak Jaya or Kosciuszko). Purists also include a sub ...

by reaching the North and South Poles and climbing the

Seven Summits The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven traditional continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Climbing the Seven Summits a ...

, and he then visited the deepest points of all Earth's five

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

s during the Five Deeps Expedition of 2018–2019.

Early life

Vescovo grew up in Dallas, Texas, where he graduated from

St. Mark's School of Texas The St. Mark's School of Texas is a nonsectarian preparatory day school for boys in grades 1–12 in Dallas, Texas, United States, accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest. History St. Mark's traces its origins to the T ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University, a master's degree in Defense and Arms Control Studies (Political Science) from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker scholar.

Military service

Vescovo served 20 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer, retiring in 2013 as a Commander (O-5).

Five Deeps Expedition

In 2018, Vescovo launched the Five Deeps Expedition, whose objective was to visit and thoroughly map the bottom of all five of the world's oceans by the end of September 2019. This expedition was filmed in the documentary television series '' Expedition Deep Ocean''. This objective was achieved one month ahead of schedule, and the expedition's team carried out biological samplings and depth confirmations at each location. Besides the deepest points of the five world oceans, the expedition also made dives in the Horizon Deep and the

Sirena Deep The Sirena Deep, originally named the HMRG Deep, was discovered in 1997 by a team of scientists from Hawaii. Its directly measured depth of is third only to the Challenger Deep and Horizon Deep, currently the deepest known directly measured ...

, and mapped the

Diamantina Fracture Zone The Diamantina Fracture Zone (DFZ) is an area of the south-eastern Indian Ocean seafloor, consisting of a range of ridges and trenches. It lies to the south of the mideastern Indian Ocean features of the Wharton Basin and Perth Basin, and ...

. In December 2018, he became the first person to reach the deepest point of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, piloting ''DSV'' Limiting Factor, a reported US$50 million submarine system (Triton 36000/2) – including its support ship the ''DSSV Pressure Drop'' and its three ultra-deep-sea robotic landers – below the ocean surface to the base of the

Puerto Rico Trench The Puerto Rico Trench is located on the boundary between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The oceanic trench, the deepest in the Atlantic, is associated with a complex transition between the Lesser Antilles subduction zone to the sou ...

, an area subsequently referred to by world media as Brownson Deep. On February 4, 2019, he became the first person to reach the bottom of the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

, in the southern portion of the

South Sandwich Trench The South Sandwich Trench is a deep arcuate trench in the South Atlantic Ocean lying to the east of the South Sandwich Islands. It is the deepest trench of the Southern Atlantic Ocean, and the second deepest of the Atlantic Ocean after the Puert ...

. For this attempt, the expedition used a

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production ...

EM124 multibeam

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...

system to achieve accurate mapping of the trench. On April 16, 2019, Vescovo dived to the bottom of the

Sunda Trench The Sunda Trench, earlier known as and sometimes still indicated as the Java Trench, is an oceanic trench located in the Indian Ocean near Sumatra, formed where the Australian- Capricorn plates subduct under a part of the Eurasian Plate. It is ...

south of Bali, reaching the bottom of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

. Likewise, this was done aboard the ''Limiting Factor''. The team reported sightings of what they believed to be species new to science, including a hadal snailfish and a gelatinous organism believed to be a stalked ascidean. The same dive was later undertaken by Patrick Lahey, President of

Triton Submarines Triton Submarines is a Florida-based company that designs and manufactures private submersibles for research, filming, deep-ocean exploration, and the luxury yachting and tourism sector. It was founded in 2007. History In 2017, Triton announced ...

, and the expedition's chief scientist, Dr. Alan Jamieson. This dive was organised subsequent to the scanning of the

using multibeam sonar, confirming that the Sunda Trench was deeper and settling the debate about where the deepest point in the Indian Ocean is. Victor Vescovo

On April 28, 2019, Vescovo descended nearly to the deepest place in the ocean – the

Challenger Deep The Challenger Deep is the deepest-known point of the seabed of Earth, with a depth of by direct measurement from deep-diving submersibles, remotely operated underwater vehicles and benthic landers, and (sometimes) slightly more by sonar bathym ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maximum known ...

. On his first descent, he piloted the ''DSV Limiting Factor'' to a depth of , a world record by . Diving for a second time on May 1, he became the first person to dive the Challenger Deep twice, finding "at least three new species of marine animals" and "some sort of plastic waste". Among the underwater creatures Vescovo encountered were a snailfish at and a spoon worm at nearly , the deepest level at which the species had ever been encountered. On May 7, 2019, Vescovo and Jamieson made the first human-occupied deep submersible dive to the bottom of the

, the third deepest point in the ocean lying about 128 miles northeast from Challenger Deep. The time they spent there was 176 minutes; among the samples they retrieved was a piece of mantle rock from the western slope of the Mariana Trench. On June 10, 2019, Vescovo reached the bottom of the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench, confirming that it is the second deepest point on the planet and the deepest in the Southern Hemisphere at . In doing so, Vescovo had descended to the first, second, and third deepest points in the ocean. Unlike the Sunda and Mariana Trenches, no signs of human contamination were found in the deep, which was described by the expedition as "completely pristine". Vescovo completed the Five Deeps Expedition on 24 August 2019 when he reached a depth of at the bottom of the Molloy Deep in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. He was the first human to reach this location.

Maritime history exploration

In 2019, Vescovo escorted ''Titanic''-historian Parks Stephenson to the wreck of the RMS ''Titanic'' for the first revisit of the wreck in 15 years. Findings included continued extensive corrosion and bacterial growth on iron and steel surfaces. S647 Minerve Dive 020120 V Vescovo and Admiral Jean-Louis Barbier

S647 Minerve Dive 020120 V Vescovo and Admiral Jean-Louis Barbier

In February 2020, Vescovo piloted his deep diving submersible twice to the wreck of the French submarine '' Minerve'' in the Mediterranean Sea. The retired French Rear Admiral Jean-Louis Barbier investigated the wreck of the ''Minerve'' on the first dive. On the second dive, Vescovo was accompanied by Hervé Fauve, the son of the captain of the sunken submarine. They placed a commemorative plaque at the wreck. In 2021, Vescovo identified and surveyed the wreck of the at a depth of in the Philippine Sea; at the time of identification this was the deepest shipwreck ever surveyed. The Johnston was sunk during the

Battle off Samar The Battle off Samar was the centermost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines on October 25, 1944. It was the only major a ...

(1944) in one of the most lopsided naval battles in history. In 2022 a submersible expedition piloted by Vescovo located the wreck of

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

(also sunk in the Battle off Samar in 1944), in the Philippine Sea at a depth of , making it the deepest wreck identified at this date.

World records

In 2019, Victor Vescovo was recognized by Guinness World Records as the person who has covered the greatest vertical distance without leaving Earth's surface. As part of achieving the

(Last Degree), Vescovo climbed

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...

() on 24 May 2010, Earth's highest point. Almost nine years later he dove to the bottom of the

in the

(), Earth's lowest point, in the deep submersible ''Limiting Factor'' on 29 April 2019, for a total vertical distance of . Vescovo completed the Explorers Grand Slam (Last Degree) by climbing the highest peak on each of the

seven continents A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

, and skied the Last Degree of Latitude at both the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

s. Uniquely, with the successful completion of his Five Deeps Expedition, Vescovo has also dived the deepest point in each of the five world's oceans. He is the first human to have reached the bottom of the

, the

, the Molloy Deep, the

, the Horizon Deep, and the deepest point of the

, which lies in the southern end of the

. He is also the first to have dived the

more than once, doing so at least a dozen times, as well as the first to have visited the three deepest points in the ocean (the Challenger, Horizon, and Sirena Deeps). In June, 2020 Vescovo returned to the Challenger Deep, specially equipped to survey its three, well-defined basins, or "pools". Carrying three CTDs on his submersible

Limiting Factor A limiting factor is a variable of a system that causes a noticeable change in output or another measure of a type of system. The limiting factor is in a pyramid shape of organisms going up from the producers to consumers and so on. A factor not l ...

as well as one CTD and one depthometer on each of his three independent robotic "landers". Vescovo piloted six passengers to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. These included former astronaut and NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, the first woman to ultimate depth; Kelly Walsh, the son of

Don Walsh Don Walsh (born November 2, 1931) is an American oceanographer, explorer and marine policy specialist. He and Jacques Piccard were aboard the bathyscaphe ''Trieste'' when it made a record maximum descent into the Challenger Deep on January 2 ...

(who with

Jacques Piccard Jacques Piccard (28 July 19221 November 2008) was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, known for having developed underwater submarines for studying ocean currents. In the Challenger Deep, he and Lt. Don Walsh of the United States Navy were the f ...

made the first dive into the Challenger Deep) to become the only father/son team to make this journey albeit 60 years apart; and Vanessa O'Brien, the first woman to both climb

Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...

and also descend to the bottom of the seafloor (Vescovo was the first person). At the end of his 2020 dives, Vescovo had the unique record of eight total dives to Challenger Deep, including the record for the deepest dive in history on April 28, 2019. File:Garmin at 90 Deg South - South Pole.jpg, Garmin at 90 Deg South File:VVescovo on Everest Summit with Tx flag 052810.jpg, At Everest summit with Texas Flag, 2010 File:VVescovo on Everest Summit with Kami Rita Sherpa Sunrise.jpg, Vescovo with Kami Rita Sherpa (on right) File:VV Mariana Trench Profile(2).jpg, At Challenger Deep, 2019

Space flight

Vescovo flew to space onboard

New Shepard New Shepard is a fully reusable suborbital launch vehicle developed by Blue Origin for space tourism. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and vertical lan ...

, as part of the Blue Origin NS-21 mission in 2022. ''Forbes'' has recognized Vescovo as the "First To Climb Everest, Visit Ocean’s Deepest Depth And Fly To The Final Frontier.

References

External links

The Five Deeps Expedition official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vescovo, Victor Living people Private equity and venture capital investors American company founders Stanford University alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni Harvard Business School alumni 1966 births People from Dallas People who have flown in suborbital spaceflight New Shepard passengers