| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
| Glomar Explorer mothballed in Suisun Bay, CA - June 1993. (USGS - Terraserver) | |
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | 1 November 1972 |
| Placed In Service: | 1 July 1973 |
| Placed Out of Service: | |
| Fate: | Leased (not SAP) |
| Stricken: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 50,500 tons full, 1780 tons light |
| Length: | 188.6 meters (619 feet) |
| Beam: | 35.3 meters (116 feet) |
| Draft: | 14 meters (46 feet) |
| Propulsion: | five Nordberg 16-cylinder diesel engines driving 4,160 VAC generators turning six 2200 HPO DC shaft motors, twin shafts |
| Speed: | 10 knots |
USNS Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193) is a large ship currently being used as a deep-sea drilling platform . The vessel originated in a secret plan by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, the K-129, as part of Project Jennifer. Because the K-129 had been lost in very deep water, a massive ship would be needed for the recovery operation. Such a vessel would be easily spotted by Soviet spies, so an elaborate cover story was developed. The CIA contacted eccentric businessman Howard Hughes, who agreed to go along with the story. Hughes told the media that he was building the ship in order to extract manganese nodules from the ocean floor. The cover story became surprisingly influential, spurring many others to examine the idea.
The ship managed to recover a portion of the submarine when it reached the site in 19741974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). Events January-February January 5 Dungeons & Dragons officially released. February 4 Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped. The United States government planned to continue to use the ship to do recovery operations, but a Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times (also L. Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the Western United States. With a circulation of 965,633 readers per day as of 2002, it is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper story in 1975Events January January 1 Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up and are sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in jail on February 21 January 5 The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, i blew the cover of the operation. For many years, the Explorer sat in Suisun Bay, until it was retrofitted for drilling operations in the late 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn.
The United States government has largely not acknowledged the operation, although a video containing memorial services for the Soviet seamen who had been pulled to the surface in a segment of the submarine was sent to RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With in the early 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn. In 20032003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Summary Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the U, portions of this video were shown on television programs concerning this operation.