Vitus Jonassen Bering was a Danish-born officer in Russian service who led two enormous expeditions across Siberia and the North Pacific. His first voyage passed through the strait separating Asia and North America; his second reached the North American coast.
Peter the Great ordered the first Kamchatka expedition in 1725 to clarify whether Asia and North America were connected by land. Bering and his party had to cross Siberia before they could even build and provision a ship in Kamchatka.
In 1728 Bering sailed Saint Gabriel north along the Kamchatka and Chukchi coasts and passed through the strait that later received his name.
He did not sight Alaska on that voyage and therefore did not personally prove by direct coast-to-coast observation that the continents were separate. Library of Congress material explicitly preserves this distinction.
The second Kamchatka expedition was vastly larger and included geographic, scientific, and ethnographic work across Siberia and the Pacific.
In 1741 Bering sailed Saint Peter while Aleksei Chirikov commanded Saint Paul. The ships became separated and independently reached the North American region.
Bering’s crew sighted the Alaska coast near Mount Saint Elias and landed on islands during the return journey. Illness, especially scurvy, devastated the crew.
Saint Peter was forced onto what is now Bering Island in the Commander Islands. Bering died there in December 1741, and survivors wintered before building a smaller vessel from the wreck and returning to Kamchatka.
A traditional portrait long used for Bering is now questioned; Alaska archival records note that forensic reconstruction after discovery of his remains suggests the famous image may depict a relative.
For TransitSatellite, the 1728 and 1741 voyages must remain separate. Calling the 1728 passage “Bering discovers Alaska” is historically incorrect.