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The lights are on inside Vanguard. Power is being generated in the support buoy and winding its way down the umbilical to our pilot subsea human habitat, where she rests 17 meters deep on the seabed at Tennessee Reef.

DEEP has received $935,000 in funding from the State of Florida to support research missions on Vanguard, the company's pilot underwater human habitat at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

DEEP’s Vanguard is now installed on the seafloor at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, becoming the first open-ocean subsea human habitat built, tested, and deployed in the United States in 40 years

We’ve taken every precaution to ensure our habitats are fit for purpose, responsibly operated, and held to the highest possible standards by our own teams and through external scrutiny.

There’s a long history of studying humans in extreme environments, examining how we adapt to those environments and how we can protect people undergoing those exposures.

DEEP has opened applications for its UK HSE Closed Bell Diver training courses, delivered from a new state-of-the-art facility in the Southwest of England.

For the first time in 40 years, an underwater habitat is being built in the United States. DEEP's pilot subsea habitat, Vanguard, will be deployed at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary — a site selected through a rigorous process weighing scientific potential, conservation value, operational safety, and seabed conditions. Tom Potts, Associate Director of Habitat Operations at DEEP and a veteran of NOAA's Aquarius program, explains why Tennessee Reef rose to the top.

We need saturation divers. Not just the kind you might be thinking of, who you’ll find torquing bolts on a pipeline flange at 300 meters deep.

DEEP has selected Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys for the 2026 deployment of its Vanguard subsea habitat, marking the first U.S. installation of its kind in 40 years.

Closed bell saturation diving enables divers to work at extreme depths while living under pressure, offering a high-skill career path with increased earning potential and access to complex offshore projects.

Sixty years after the groundbreaking Sealab I mission proved humans could live underwater, its legacy continues to shape modern subsea exploration and the future of underwater habitats.

A firsthand NEEMO mission story reveals how living in an underwater habitat helps scientists study the ocean while preparing astronauts for future space exploration.