WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Exploration Place is pulling back the curtain and showing people inside the top-secret mission that led to the discovery of the Titanic.
EP previewed a new exhibit, “Finding TITANIC: The Secret Mission,” on Thursday. It follows the story of Robert Ballard, who was tasked with finding two lost American nuclear submarines during the Cold War.
The search for the USS Thresher and USSScorpion was a top-secret mission from the Navy, with the hunt for the Titanic as a cover story. Ballard, a Wichita-born oceanographer and explorer, got permission to actually search for the shipwreck after his task was accomplished.
But to the outside world and the documentarians who tagged along, the entire mission was a search for the Titanic.
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Ballard said there was a command center on the ship, and few people were allowed inside so the secret could be kept from those who were not part of his team…