China successfully launches its first independent “Tianwen-1“ mission to Red Planet 

China has successfully launched its first independent Mars mission, Tianwen-1, on a Long March 5 rocket from Hainan Island’s Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday.

The Space.com reported that the Tianwen-1 consists of an orbiter and a lander/rover duo, a combination of craft that had never before launched together toward the Red Planet.

The ambition of Tianwen-1 is especially striking given that it’s China’s first stab at a full-on Mars mission. (The nation did launch a Red Planet orbiter called Yinghuo-1 in November 2011, but that launch failed, leaving the probes trapped in Earth orbit.

The probe is expected to reach the Red Planet in February 2021. 

If it succeeds, Tianwen-1 (Questions to Heaven) will be the first-ever Mars expedition to complete orbiting, landing, and roving in a single mission.

“The lander/rover pair will touch down on the Martian surface two to three months later somewhere within Utopia Planitia, a large plain in the planet’s Northern Hemisphere that also welcomed NASA’s Viking 2 Lander in 1976,” the Space.com said.

According to the report, the solar-powered rover will then spend about 90 Martian days, or sols, studying its surroundings in detail.

It comes as a week ago, the UAE launched its Mars Mission called Hope – the first attempt to go interplanetary by any Arab country.