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Billionaire Larry Connor will go to the Titanic wreck site in a two-man submarine.
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Connor’s trip comes as OceanGate’s sunken harbor enters June 2023.
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Connor is a hotshot wannabe who set a world record jumping out of a hot air balloon.
An Ohio billionaire who flew into space and explored the Mariana Trench has set his sights on a new adventure: the Titanic shipwreck.
Real estate investor Larry Connor, 74, will go on the cruise with Patrick Lahey, co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines. The submersible manufacturer confirmed their collaboration in an Instagram post in May, calling it “realistic”.
The pair told the Wall Street Journal in May that they would be traveling to the Titanic wreck site to prove it can be done safely after last year’s OceanGate tragedy.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and four other passengers died after the company’s submersible Titan was hit en route to the Titanic wreck site.
“I want to show people around the world that although the ocean is incredibly powerful, it can be really fun and life-changing if you do it the right way ,” Connor told the outlet.
Even before announcing his deep-sea ambitions, Connor has been seeking thrills on land and in Earth orbit.
Here’s what we know about Connor.
Connor is a real estate investor who founded The Connor Group, which has $5 billion in assets.
Connor’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to the real estate industry in 1991, when he launched Connor, Murphy, and Buhrman with just one investor, according to his company bio.
He later bought out his partners and, in 2003, created the luxury real estate investment firm The Connor Group, based in Ohio.
He has a net worth of $2 billion, according to Forbes.
The firm’s website says the Connor Group specializes in luxury apartment communities with more than $5 billion in assets in 18 US markets.
The Connor Group – with over 1,300 investors – has properties in Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, Miami, Phoenix, Louisville, and more.
He founded The Greater Dayton School.
The Greater Dayton School is described as “Ohio’s first non-denominational private school for underprivileged students” on The Connor Group’s website. The official campus opened to students in November 2023, according to the school’s website.
The school’s website said 105 children were enrolled in Pre-K through fourth grade as of October 2023.
Connor is also passionate about racing and has over 70 wins.
Connor’s bio said he is a “two-time winner of the Baja 1000 and Baja 500 in the Trophy Truck Spec class.”
He also took first place at the Formula Atlantic National Championship in 2001 and 2002 before emerging at Petit Le Mans in 2003, his biography says.
Connor visited the Mariana Trench, the deepest place in the world, in April 2021.
Connor’s trip to the Titanic wreck site will not be his first time traveling with Lahey.
The pair completed dives to the Sirena Deep, the Challenger Deep, and a seamount in the Mariana Trench over five days in April 2021, according to The Connor Group.
Connor and Lahey used the Triton 36000/2 designed by Triton Submarines. A press release from Triton Submarines said that Connor and Lahey collected “high-quality video and samples in the ‘hadal zone,’ or the area of the ocean below 20,000 feet – the final frontier of exploration on Earth.”
The scientists planned to study the information collected by Connor and Lahey on their journey for medical, commercial and evolutionary research.
He piloted a flight to the International Space Station a year later.
Connor became the first private astronaut pilot in April 2022 when he flew members of Axiom Mission 1 to the International Space Station, his firm says. The four-person crew flew aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on April 8 and returned to Earth on April 25.
NASA and aerospace startup Axiom Space first announced the flight in May 2021.
“While aboard the ISS, the team completed 25 different experiments, logging over 100 hours of research,” read a press release from The Connor Group. “Larry partnered with renowned medical experts at the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic on four different experiments to study the heart, brain, spine and aging.”
He made the best ever jump from a hot air balloon in September 2023.
Connor and four other men hold the Guinness World Record for the highest HALO – high altitude, low opening – skydive at 38,139 feet. The team set the record in September 2023.
“Larry and the Alpha-5 Team prepared for more than one year to skydive the formation of HALO. They jumped from a hot air balloon and made the jump to support the charity of the Special Operations Warfare Foundation (SOWF), ” says the Guinness World Records website. .
Read the original article on Business Insider
