Share a Cup of Friendship

In January 2007, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and WHOI biologist Tim Shank made the first-ever phone call from outer space (the International Space Station) to inner space (the deep ocean floor).  Little did Williams know that Shank was also making her a gift during their call. On Wednesday, September 12, 2007, Shank presented Willians with a souvenir to commemorate their long-distance phone call a decorated, styrofoam coffee cup that had been shrunken by the intense seafloor pressure on the outside of Alvin. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)