(East Wenatchee, WA) – An East Wenatchee man has taken a passion for exploration and made it a career of searching deep sea and near space. Trent Tresch grew up in Western Washington but now calls East Wenatchee “home.” Of course, “home” is where you make it.
Recently, Tresch joined NCWLIFE Channel host Eric Granstrom on a Zoom interview to talk about his journey and where he’s heading next.
Trent Tresch is an explorer and academic constantly pushing the boundaries of deep sea and space. His “home” is in East Wenatchee, when he’s not flitting around the globe. He talked with NCWLIFE’s Eric Granstrom about his journeys on Wake Up Wenatchee Valley.
Tresch is continually on the go and has stepped foot on seven continents in his travels. From the polar ice sheets of Antarctica, where he supported remote ice surveys, to working on the National Geographic DropCam operations in Southeast Alaska. With the non-profit Exploring Our Deep World, in the depths of the Great Lakes, he has even hunted and discovered shipwrecks. Under the flagged banner of the Explorers Club, he led a submersible expedition that logged over fifty hours at depth, successfully tagging and tracking sixgill sharks in partnership with Florida State University’s Marine Science Laboratory.
In aerospace, Tresch has logged over 100 hours in 9 different space suits. Training with the David Clark S1034 pressure suit at Beale Air Force Base, completing aerospace physiology training at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, and serving as a prime crew member for NASA’s Exploration Atmosphere 5 mission at Johnson Space Center. Here he lived inside the historic 20-foot pressure chamber to help develop decompression protocols for future Artemis lunar crews.
Tresch’s experiences have allowed him to contribute to projects that blend science, engineering, and storytelling. For example, he supported balloon operations for the “Up” episode of Lego Disney’s Making Wonder, which later earned a 2024 Webby Award. His work in space has been featured on William Shatner’s The Unexplained (History Channel) and Discovery Channel. His efforts to advance public engagement with space have brought him to stages around the world, including the Paris Peace Forum, where he’s spoken on inclusive approaches to the global space economy.
As an aeronaut and in pursuit of his PhD, he is currently developing stratospheric balloon capsules to facilitate affordable, near-space crewed and uncrewed flights. Tresch recently co-founding the spacesuit company (Flagsuit Industries) with his colleague Peter Homer.
Tresch is leaving Friday for Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to witness a crewed Soyuz rocket launch. Tresch’s trip is being funded through a grant from the MoonDAO is an open source space platform where everything is proposed, governed, and created by members in an effort to support space exploration and research.
Trent Tresch’s awards and honors include but are not limited to:
2025: MoonDAO Baikonur Cosmodrome Grant; Martine Rothblatt Space Settlement Prize (StratoLabs).
2024: Air and Space Force Association SWR-AZ-334 Davis Monthan Composite Squadron Radio Grant; NASA Arizona Space Grant Consortium Space Mentor Grant; British-American Fellow (International Leader Program); Martine Rothblatt Space Settlement Prize (Spacesuits for Long Term Settlement).
2023: Scale Up Program, Paris Peace Forum: An Inclusive Approach to the Space Economy; National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps Grant (Portable Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Chamber); Blue Origin Club for the Future / National Space Society Grant (Spacesuit Operations and Training); Martine Rothblatt Space Settlement Prize (Building Opportunities for AI Neural Networks in Space); Karman Fellow (Global Space Leadership Program).
2021: NASA X-Hab Grant (University of Arizona TC-TSAC Life Support Re-design); Sustainable Oceans Alliance Grant (Sixgill Shark Research via Deep Ocean Submarine).
2019: The Explorers Club Mamont Scholars Grant (Astronaut Parafoil Handle Deployment Location); United States Parachute Association STAR Award (Spacesuit Skydiving).