Xi sends congratulatory letter on Mars probe's historic landing
Named after an ancient Chinese poem, Tianwen 1 was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on July 23 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southernmost island province of Hainan, kicking off China's planetary exploration program.
The spacecraft travelled more than 470 million kilometers and carried out four midcourse corrections and a deep-space trajectory maneuver before entering a Martian orbit on Feb 10, when it was 193 million km from Earth – because the two celestial bodies keep moving on their own orbit, a Mars-bound spacecraft must fly in a carefully designed, curved trajectory to catch up with the red planet.
Depending on the two planets' orbits, the distance between Mars and Earth ranges from 55 million km to 400 million km.
On Feb 24, Tianwen 1 entered a preset parking orbit above Mars. The spacecraft was programmed to maintain that orbit for about three months to examine the preset landing site.
Video provided by China Academy of Space Technology
