China becomes 2nd nation to land spacecraft on Mars
A Chinese spacecraft landed on Mars early Saturday morning.
China is now the second nation to land a craft on Mars, as the Tianwen-1 rover touched down on the Red Planet’s surface around 7 a.m. Beijing time, the Associated Press reported.
The rover was launched in July 2020 and entered Mars’ orbit in February.
The Tianwen-1 will study the planet’s soil and atmosphere, according to Reuters. It will also search for signs of life.
The rover landed after the so-called “nine minutes of terror,” in which it detached from an orbiting module and plummeted through space to the planet’s surface, state run Xinhua News Agency reported.
“If there had been any flaw, the landing would have failed,” Chinese rocket scientist Geng Yan said.
The U.S. landed its first of nine crafts on Mars in 1976, when the Viking 1 safely touched down. A Soviet mission crashed in 1971.
