LOS ANGELES TIMES, July 17, 1986
- RMS Titanic shipwreck breached for the 1st time
- Jason Jr. - remote (ROV) vehicle goes inside
The front page has a one column heading: "Titanic Camera Finds Beauty Is a Joy Forever" with lead-in: "Leap in Technology" and related illustration. (see images) First report coverage continues inside with related photo.
Complete with all major sections (100+ pages), nice condition.
Background: On July 16, 1986, deep-sea exploration reached an extraordinary milestone when the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason Jr. made history by venturing where no human or submersible had gone before: inside the interior of the RMS Titanic shipwreck. Operating 12,500 feet beneath the North Atlantic during a high-stakes expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the tethered, lawnmower-sized micro-ROV was deployed directly from the human-occupied submersible DSV Alvin. Controlled via a 300-foot fiber-optic cable by pilot Martin Bowen, Jason Jr. captured unprecedented, haunting footage within the ship's grand staircase, intact chandeliers, and private officer quarters. This dive was exceptionally rare and ground-breaking—it was the very first time human eyes had glimpsed the interior ruins of the legendary ocean liner since its sinking in 1912, proving for the first time that fragile, micro-robotic technology could safely navigate hazardous, high-pressure environments impossible for manned submersibles to reach.