8:00 a.m. — The morning Mir meeting. Dr. Sagalevitch and the team are optimistic that dive operations can begin at 10:00 a.m. The plan calls for launching the RHIBs at 9:30 a.m., then Mir 2 with James Cameron and his team aboard at 10:00 a.m. On this operation, the plan is to run the fiber to the bottom first, then send Mir 1 an hour later to join Mir 2 at the wreck. The boat team prepares the RHIBs while the sub crew conducts final deck checks.

10:00 a.m. — Final checks proceed, launch delayed for now.

11:30 a.m. — Dr. Anatoly Sagalevitch, James Cameron and Michael Abuthnot climb aboard Mir 2 to prepare for launch.

11:45 a.m. — They're in the water. The "cowboy," a swimmer in a wetsuit, swims atop the sub and releases it from the crane. The Russian tender Koresh tows it away from the Keldysh. Diver Kelvin Magee swims to the sub, retrieves the TV cable and pulls it to Prime RHIB. The connection is made. The signal is live in mission control.

Noon — There's a problem with the camera that gives us a view of the cable paying out. Kelvin is back in the water straightening it out. There's also difficulty with communications between master control and Cameron in the sub. The engineers are on it.

1:00 p.m. — All is well on Mir 2. Anatoly at the controls starts his descent.

2:15 p.m. — Mir 2 continues its descent. The deck crew prepares and launches Mir 1. Aboard are pilot Genya Cherniaev, cinematographer Mike DeGruy and archaeologist Emily Jateff. Genya takes the sub down as Mir 2 approaches the bottom.

3:30 p.m. — Mir 2 arrives on the bottom. The signal is good! Dave Cameron on Prime RHIB winches in cable on the surface to take out the slack. They wait by the wreck for Mir 1 to arrive from the surface.

5:00 p.m. — Mir 2 flies over the bow of the wreck. Mission control erupts in applause. Several members of the Russian crew, including Anatoly's wife Natalya, gather to watch their subs do their work for the first time. Cameron directs the crew of Mir 1 to place their lights and camera in the optimum position for filming. His excitement is clear at executing the technical plan that has been in the works for more than a year and in his imagination even longer.

5:30 p.m. — Mir 2 takes position above the deck on the wreck near the Marconi Room to attempt to fly the robotic ROV. For the first time, Mir 2 is transmitting live video from the most famous shipwreck in the world to the surface.

7:00 p.m. — The X-bot leaves its garage for the first time. Jim Cameron is worried that it is responding sluggishly. It also appears to be too positively buoyant. He must use his down thruster just to keep the bot from rising away from the wreck. As he flies the bot away from the wreck, yet another problem reveals itself. The fiber-optic tether on the bot stops paying out, restricting the bot to 10 feet from the sub. The bot crew in mission control worries that the extreme pressure has caused the cable spool to expand on its axle. Three separate problems. After getting the sub to the wreck and the live link working, failures in ROV technology have stopped Cameron once again from exploring the wreck.

8:30 p.m. — The ROV difficulties continue. The problem now is flying the bot back into its garage to house it for the sub's ascent.

9:00 p.m. — Mission scrubbed; none of the bots fly properly. The single nearly working bot is now in danger. With no ability to drive the bot downward to its garage, Cameron asks Dr. Sagalevitch to pin the bot against the sub's hull using the movable boom. This appears to work.

9:30 p.m. — Mir 2 encounters another problem. The critical cable cutter is now inoperable. Genya pilots Mir 1 into position and cuts the cable. The sub is free; the signal is lost.

11:45 p.m. — Mir 2 resurfaces. Cameron is pleased with the success of the fiber-optic system. We were live to mission control from the wreck. His frustration with the ROVs is contained. One step a time. We have achieved the most difficult link in the system. Tomorrow we will fine-tune the rest.

Stephen Reverand is Executive Producer and Vice President of Special Projects for Discovery Channel.

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