China’s Tianwen-1 probe has returned the first image of Mars, the national space agency said, as the mission prepares for a downpour on the Red Planet later this year.
The spacecraft, launched in July around the same time as the rival U.S. mission, is expected to orbit Mars around Feb. 10.
The black-and-white image released late Friday by China’s National Space Administration showed geological features including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, a large piece of canyons on the Martian surface.
The photo was taken about 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Mars, according to CNSA, which said the spacecraft was now 1.1 million kilometers from the planet.
The robotic craft rejected one of its engines to perform “orbital correction” on Friday and was expected to slow down before being captured “by Martian gravity” around February 10, the group said.
(China national space administration)
The five-ton Tianwen-1 includes a Mars orbiter, lander and rover that will study the planet’s soil.
China hopes to complete the rover in May in Utopia, a major impact center on Mars.
After overseeing the United States and the Soviet Union leading the way through the Cold War, China has poured billions of dollars into its military-led space program.
It has come a long way in the last decade, launching spaceflight in 2003.
The Asian powerhouse has laid the foundation to build a space station by 2022 and to gain a permanent grip on Earth’s orbit.
But Mars has been a challenging target so far, with most missions sent by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and India to the planet since 1960 coming to an end. end in failure.
Tianwen-1 is not the first attempt in China to reach Mars.
A previous mission with Russia in 2011 ended prematurely when the launch failed.
China has already sent two rods to the Moon. With the latter, China became the first country to land a successful soft land on the other side.
All systems on the Tianwen-1 probe are in “good condition,” CNSA said Friday.
© Agence France-Presse