WASHINGTON: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) did not shortly stop its deep-sea research activities in 1978, contrary to social media posts shared online saying the space agency found something scary in the depths and turned its focus that year to space travel as a means of escape, western media reported.
A footage on Facebook features pictures of the ocean with voiceover and text claiming that NASA started exploring the deep sea in 1958 but decided to stop in 1978. Following that, NASA started working on getting us off the sphere. What did they explore down there? What are they so afraid of?”
The video was shared more than 1,000 times and misstates some facts. NASA started operating in October 1958. The space agency said it was developed with objectives centered on aeronautical and space exploration, but it also has a history of involvement in deep-sea research as part of studying the planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said that in 1978, NASA had launched the Seasat satellite to test sensors and examine Earth’s oceans, but a huge short circuit in the spacecraft’s electrical system finished the mission on October 10, 1978, following just 105 days of the operation. The space agency continues to study the deep ocean in order to understand climate changes. In 2018, NASA had announced a joint mission with the National Science Foundation supporting research to understand the interactions between microscopic organisms at 650 to 3,300 feet below the surface and oceanic carbon cycles. According to Reuters, the social media post was misleading and NASA did not abruptly stop deep-sea research after the failure of a satellite in 1978 as the agency continues to study the deep ocean and launched missions as recently as 2021.
