Echoes from Below: The Strange Case of Project Tektite

In 1969, the U.S. Navy dropped a pressurized lab on the ocean floor and left men to live there for weeks. What they brought back wasn’t just data—it was something no one wanted to talk about.

This episode of Unsettled: The Hidden Record dives into Project Tektite, a little-known Cold War undersea experiment that combined deep-sea habitation, psychological testing, and biological surveillance. Presented as a peaceful scientific endeavor, the mission was closely monitored by the Department of Defense and NASA.

Was this just about science? Or were these divers being studied as test subjects in a new environment—under pressure, both literal and political?

From sealed steel chambers to silent sonar logs, this is the story of a submerged Cold War chapter whose depths still haven’t been fully charted.