China's manned deep-sea submersible, the Jiaolong, has concluded it's first in a series of scheduled dives and has gone back to its mother ship. Jiaolong reached nearly 6700 meters in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, the deepest in China's manned deep sea diving history.

It is a triumphant return for Jiaolong and its three crew members. The submersible reached a historic 6,671 meters in its first dive mission this year.

Soon after its resurface, the submersible was picked up by its mother ship, Xiang Yanghong. The three divers exited from the hatch and are all in good conditions.

The team will analyze data retrieved from the dive to identify any malfunctions and prepare for possible problems before finalizing the plan for the second dive.

The dive, which began at 7 AM Beijing time Friday, is the first in a series of six scheduled dives. It is aimed at checking the vessel's functions and performance, following technical improvements over the past year.

Yang Bo, Jiaolong sea driver, said, "Every year after trial diving missions, we will make adjustments to the submersible system, including the acoustic system. After the upgrade, we can only conduct tank experiments, which are not sufficient. Therefore on our first dive, we need to make sure the system can work at great depths under the sea."

Depending on local weather and sea conditions, the Jiaolong will try another five dives, deeper and deeper, in the coming days. The fifth and sixth are scheduled to challenge the depth of 7,000 meters, setting the record for the country's deepest-ever manned dive.

While the crews were deep under the sea, they also delivered their best wishes for the Shenzhou-9 space launch, scheduled for Saturday.

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