MISSION 6-50

A view of the all-female aquanaut crew of Mission 6-50 and a portrait of Peggy Lucas, habitat engineer for Mission 6-50, vintage gelatin silver prints, 19 x 24 cm and 24 x 16.5 cm, the former numbered 70-HC-695 in the negative, lower left, ink-stamped Triton and date stamped 28 Oct 1970 on verso, the latter with inscribed number 70-272-1.

***Tektite I and II were scientific missions to study life underwater in a purpose-built habitat capsule located 15 metres below the surface in Great Lameshur Bay, St John, US Virgin Islands, in 1969 and 1970, respectively. Tektite II was part-funded by NASA because of its interest in the psychological study of the impact on the scientific teams of living and working in such a closed environment, so similar to that onboard a spacecraft. The mission involved 10 crews of aquanauts, each comprising 4 scientists and one habitat engineer, submerged in turn for between 10 and 20 days each. Crew 6-50 was the first NASA mission to include women, and the only mission to date with an all-female crew. The four scientists were Sylvia Earle, Renate Schlentz True, Ann Hurley Hartline and Alina Szmant, and the habitat engineer was Margaret Ann 'Peggy' Lucas Bond.