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China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft has returned its first image of Mars, the national space agency said, as the mission prepares to touch the red planet later this year.
The spacecraft, launched in July at the same time as a rival US mission, is expected to enter Mars orbit around February 10.
The black-and-white photo released Friday afternoon by China’s National Space Administration showed geological features, including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, an extensive stretch of cannons on the Martian surface.
The photograph was taken about 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Mars, according to CNSA, which said the spacecraft is now 1.1 million kilometers from the planet.
The robotic spacecraft fired one of its engines to “make an orbital correction” on Friday and was expected to slow down before being “captured by Martian gravity” around Feb. 10, the agency said.
The five-ton Tianwen-1 includes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a rover that will study the planet’s soil.
China expects to land the rover in May in Utopia, a massive impact basin on Mars.
Billions of dollars
After seeing how the United States and the Soviet Union led during the Cold War, China has invested billions of dollars in its military-led space program.
In the last decade it has advanced enormously and sent a human into space in 2003.
The Asian power plant has laid the groundwork for mounting a space station by 2022 and gaining a permanent position in Earth orbit.
But Mars has proven to be a challenging target so far, with most missions sent by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and India to the planet since 1960 and ended in failure.
Tianwen-1 is not China’s first attempt to reach Mars.
An earlier mission with Russia in 2011 ended prematurely, as the launch failed.
China has already sent two rovers to the moon. With the second, China became the first country to achieve a successful soft landing on the far side.
All Tianwen-1 probe systems are in “good condition,” CNSA said Friday.
(AFP)