The "Jiaolong", China's manned deep-diving submersible, is to attempt a 5-thousand meter dive Friday morning in the Pacific Ocean. We can now go live to Su'nan international wharf in China's Jiangsu province, where the Jiaolong is resting on its mother ship, waiting to be carried to the Pacific Ocean.

The "Jiaolong", China's manned deep-diving submersible, is to attempt a 5-thousand meter dive Friday morning in the Pacific Ocean.

The Jiaolong vessel is 8.2 meters long and weighs nearly 22 tons. It was designed to reach a depth of 7-thousand meters and operate in most of the world's oceans. Jiaolong is considered to be the world's only deep-sea vessel that can theoretically reach those depths.

From May to July last year in South China Sea, Jiaolong with a crew of three dived 17 times and went below 3,000 meters four times. The deepest was 3,795 meters. It operated at a peak duration of nine hours and three minutes and sent back videos and photos of the seabed.

That makes China the fifth country, following the United States, France, Russia and Japan, to have the technology to send a manned dive more than 35-hundred meters below sea level.

China's submersible development is aimed at scientific research to help with the peaceful exploration and utilization of natural resources. Jiaolong's main missions include physical, chemical and biological research, as well as exploration and deep-sea salvage.