EM Jiaolong EM sets off on historic mission.docVIP

Foreign and Military Affairs Jiaolong sets off on historic mission By Shi Jing (China Daily) Updated: 2011-07-02 08:19 Comments(3)PrintMail LargeMediumSmall Ye Cong (L), pilot of the Jiaolong, and his colleagues greet onlookers prior to boarding the ship carrying the vessel in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province, July 1, 2011. [Photo by Gao Erqiang / China Daily] Related reading: Submersible Jiaolong to dive 5km JIANGYIN, Jiangsu - Chinas manned deep-diving submersible Jiaolong left Jiangyin in East Chinas Jiangsu province on board its mother ship Xiangyanghong 9 on Friday for a 5,000 meter dive in the Pacific Ocean between southeastern Hawaii and North America. China is the worlds fifth nation - following the United States, France, Russia and Japan - to have the technology to make a manned submersible dive at more than 3,500 meters below sea level. Li Haiqing, a spokesman for the State Oceanic Administration, said that the dive would take the international community by surprise. Jiaolong, named after a mythical sea dragon, completed 17 dives in the South China Sea between May 31 and July 13 last year, reaching a maximum depth of 3,759 meters with three crew members on board. The craft is 8.2 meters long and weighs about 22 tons. It is designed to go to a depth of 7,000 meters, which could give China access to 99.8 percent of the ocean floor. Jin Jiancai, secretary-general of China Ocean Mineral Resources RD Association (COMRA), said that Jiaolongs current mission would take around 47 days, and it is expected to make four dives. Safety would be the top priority throughout the entire mission, Jin added. First of all, we should bear in mind that this is a scientific experiment. Although we have studied the environment as much as possible, there are still some unpredictable conditions. Even if we could not reach the expected depth for some reason, we will achieve the goal of this experiment as long as all our crew members return safely to land, said Jin. The manufactu