A manned Chinese submersible conducted its first dive to beyond 4,000 meters on Thursday, the government said, in the latest milestone for the country's deep-sea ambitions.
A manned Chinese submersible conducted its first dive to beyond 4,000
meters on Thursday, the government said, in the latest milestone for the
country's deep-sea ambitions.
The Jiaolong undersea craft--named after a mythical sea dragon--reached 4,027
meters with three people aboard during the dive in the northern
Pacific
Ocean
,
China
's
State Oceanic Administration said in a statement.
"The success of this test dive has laid a solid foundation for completing
the mission of diving to 5,000 meters," it said. The craft will attempt to
surpass 5,000 meters in another dive on Friday.
Chinese technical capabilities have grown by leaps and bounds in recent
decades, exemplified by a fast-growing space program that in 2005 made
China
just
the third nation to conduct manned space flights.
The Jiaolong's undersea range theoretically gives
China
access to nearly all of the world's deep-sea areas, Chinese officials have said
in the past.
The craft is designed to reach a maximum depth of 7,000 meters and in a dive
last year it made China only the fifth country to go deeper than the
3,500-meter mark, according to previous Chinese reports.
The deepest dive ever conducted was by the U.S. Navy, which reached the bottom
of the Mariana Trench--the deepest point in the world's oceans at 11,000
meters--in 1960 in a manned undersea craft.
China
has
said its development of submersible technology is aimed at scientific research
and the peaceful exploration and use of natural resources.
The country has pushed hard in recent years to obtain oil, minerals and other
natural resources needed to fuel its growth.
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