China's manned deep-sea submersible, the Jiaolong, completed its first dive Friday and went back to its mother ship Xiangyanghong 09.
When back on the mother ship after a dive into the deepest place on the planet, three Chinese sea drivers were welcomed with a bucket of water splashing over head as an especial way to celebrate their safe return.
YANG Bo from IACAS assumed the first dive task with YE Cong, the oceanaut and first sea driver and CUI Weicheng, the vice design director of Jiaolong.
They steered China's manned deep-sea submersible, the Jiaolong, to 6,671 meters deep in the Mariana Trench Friday, a national record far surpassing the 5,188-meter one it set last July.
The crew members, who had got out of the Jiaolong vessel, were waving the national flag and sending best regards to the motherland.
The dive went smoothly and took about 3 hours for the submersible to reach the depth of 6,671 meters at noon time (0200 GMT).
The trio wished China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft scheduled for launch on Saturday a success from 6,055 meters under the sea.
The dive, which began at 9 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Thursday), is the first of a series of six scheduled ones to attempt the country's deepest-ever 7,000-meter manned dive.
The aim of this dive is to test and verify the technical situations of updated submersible’s systems after the 5000-meter dive, in order to challenge the deeper ocean.
The Jiaolong will try another five dives, deeper and deeper, in the coming days.
Three sea divers Cui Weicheng, Ye Cong and Yang Bo (L to R) wave aboard Xiangyanghong 09, mother ship of China's manned deep-sea submersible, Jiaolong, after the Jiaolong completed its first dive on June 15, 2012. The Jiaolong reached over 6,000 meters in the Mariana Trench at noon time (0200 GMT) Friday, setting the country's dive record. The dive, which began at 9 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Thursday), is the first of a series of six scheduled ones to attempt the country's deepest-ever 7,000-meter manned dive. (Xinhua/Luo Sha) (Source: Xinhuanet)