BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s inaugural space exploration mission to Mars has captured its first image of the red planet, the space agency said on Friday, about six months after the spacecraft left Earth.
The unmanned Tianwen-1 was photographed at a distance of about 2.2 million km (1.4 million miles) from Mars, according to the National Space Administration of China (CNSA), which provided a black and white image.
The spacecraft is now only half that distance from Mars and about 184 million km from Earth after 197 days of the mission, the CNSA said in a statement, adding that its systems were in good condition. conditions.
The Tianwen-1 was launched in July from Hainan Island in southern China, and was expected to reach Mars orbit this month. In May, it will attempt to land on Utopia Planitia, a plain in the northern hemisphere, and deploy a rover to explore for 90 days.
If successful, the Tianwen-1 will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover on its inaugural mission to Mars, further increasing China’s space credentials after it became last year. in the first nation to recover samples from the Moon since the 1970s.
Previously, China made a March offer in 2011 with Russia, but the Russian spacecraft carrying the spacecraft was unable to leave Earth’s orbit and disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean.
Ryan Woo Reports; writing by Tom Daly; edition by Nick Macfie