The Daily

NASA took us on a scientific journey to the depths of the ocean floor, and the result is a fascinating article and video about a world few have ever seen — a world where astronauts are training for a mission that’s light years away.

Sixty-two feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, just off Florida’s Key Largo, astronauts work in a metal tube preparing to scale asteroids in deep space by practicing underwater.

They are part of NEEMO, short for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations: a one-of-a-kind program that studies human life in a 43-foot cylinder attached to the ocean floor. For 12 days beginning June 11, a six-person international team descended to Aquarius, the world’s only underwater research lab, to begin the latest round of testing to help NASA plot a manned mission to an outer space asteroid, something President Obama directed the agency to accomplish by 2025.

But budget cuts endanger the program, and the most recent excursion may be its last. The Daily dove along with the astronauts as Tropical Storm Debby churned toward Florida and stirred up the Atlantic Ocean.