Project Tektite: America’s Undersea Space Program is a documentary that tells the story of the Tektite program that took place in Lameshur Bay on St. John in the US Virgin Islansds in 1969 and 1970. It was a private public partnership between the likes of GE, NASA, US Navy, Department of the Interior and others, and the first scientists-in-the-sea program sponsored nationally.
The documentary film makers are long time St. John residents, Steve Simonsen and William Stelzer. Experienced film makers, videographers and photographers, they have been collecting Tektite material and recording interviews with the Tektite crew for over 15 years.
Steve Simonsen was born in Michigan, and attended school in Boulder before living and working in locations around the globe such as Moorea, Egypt, Micronesia, Mexico, Bahamas and Virgin Islands. For the past 35 years, Steve has been based on the island of St. John, USVI. A tireless explorer and documentarian, Steve is a professional photographer who has brought alluring scenes of natural tropical beauty to everything from resort marketing to stock photo collections and coffee table books. He is a stock and assignment photographer and videographer as well as being a licensed FAA drone pilot, a PADI and NAUI diving instructor and an underwater naturalist.
William Stelzer is a freelance artist and filmmaker who has lived on St. John since 1992. Born in Michigan, he specializes in art, science, education and humanitarian projects, using all manner of digital media, from photography and design to computer graphics and augmented reality. He studied design at Michigan State University and film at The University of Texas at Austin. Since then, his adventures include working as a Graphics Director for the ABC-TV affiliate in Central Texas during the First Gulf War and as a Special Effects Director using computer and model animation for accident reconstructions. He was also part of a research expedition into the Venezuelan Amazon to study burial cave artwork, has taught computer graphics in West Africa, and shot documentary footage high on a Peruvian glacier. In addition, he has produced a number of mini documentaries in Haiti, Nicaragua and St. John for the Waveplace Foundation, Gifft Hill School and Friends of Virgin Islands National Park.