China’s Tianwen-1 mission begins its monthslong journey to Mars
China set off on what it hoped would be its first successful journey to Mars on Thursday, launching a combined orbiter, lander and rover to the red planet on a voyage that will last until next year.
If successful, the mission would affirm China’s place among the top spacefaring nations, able to plan and carry out complex interplanetary missions on its own. Only the United States and, briefly, the Soviet Union have previously succeeded in landing a vehicle on the planet.
As ever in China, the launch was shrouded in secrecy in advance, though unofficial video streams posted by Chinese viewers showed the vessel beginning to rise at 12:41 p.m. from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island, ringed by crystal blue waters.
Crowds cheered from nearby beaches as the rocket traveled toward the south and east through clear skies on its way out of Earth’s atmosphere.
China’s space agency did not broadcast its own official live video. But within an hour of the launch, state television showed the rocket lifting off and announced that the mission, called Tianwen-1, or “Questions for Heaven,” was safely on its way to Mars.
“The Tianwen-1 mission is a major landmark project in the process of building China’s space power and a milestone project for China’s aerospace to go further and deeper into space,” the deputy project commander, Wu Yansheng, said in a statement from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Group.
It was the second launch of a summer filled with trips to Mars. It came days after the Hope orbiter, a spacecraft built by the United Arab Emirates, launched Monday from Japan. Like the Emirates, China is taking advantage of the brief window every 26 months or so when Earth and Mars are closer than usual.
A third mission — NASA’s Perseverance rover — is scheduled to launch next week. If all three missions take off successfully, they are to arrive at Mars next February. Tianwen-1 is scheduled to enter an elliptical orbit for two to three months before attempting a “soft landing” on the planet’s surface.