BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s initial space exploration mission to Mars captured its first image of the red planet, the space agency said on Friday, about six months after the spacecraft left Earth.
Unmanned Tianwen-1 photographed 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 halfway to Mars and about 184 million kilometers from Earth after 197 days of mission, the CNSA said in a statement, adding that its systems were in good condition.
Tianwen-1 was launched in July from southern Hainan Island in China and was expected to reach Mars orbit this month. In May, it will attempt to land in Utopia Planitia, a plain in the northern hemisphere, and launch a rover to explore for 90 days.
If successful, Tianwen-1 will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover on its inaugural mission to Mars, further enhancing China’s space accreditations after it became the first nation to bring back samples from month since the 1970s.
China previously made an offer on Mars in 2011 with Russia, but the Russian spacecraft carrying the spacecraft failed to leave Earth’s orbit and disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean.
Reporting by Ryan Woo; written by Tom Daly; edited by Nick Macfie