China has become only the second nation to successfully land a spacecraft on Mars on Friday, joining the United States. Tianwen-1, China’s firs

With Tianwen-1, China makes history as the first country to land on Mars.

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2021-05-15 02:09:10

China has become only the second nation to successfully land a spacecraft on Mars on Friday, joining the United States. Tianwen-1, China’s first mission to the Red Planet, launched in the middle of last year, sharing the particularly busy July 2020 Martian launch window with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, including the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter, and the United Arab Emirates’ Al Amal orbiter.

Tianwen-1’s orbiter section successfully separated from it’s lander section, which then successfully landed on Mars’ Utopia Planitia, carrying with it a small rover called Zhurong. Landing occurred at 23:11 UTC.

The spacecraft launched from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the southern Chinese island of Hainan aboard the fifth flight of the country’s Long March 5 heavy lift rocket on 23 July 2020. As well as marking the first time the Long March 5 had launched a payload beyond Earth orbit, the launch of Tianwen-1 also marked China’s first mission to Mars.

Despite being the county’s first interplanetary mission, it is rather complex, with the approximately five ton probe consisting of three separate spacecraft, an orbiter, lander and rover.