The rover had traveled less than 1.5 million kilometers from Earth on Tuesday, the agency said.
Beijing:
China’s first Mars probe returned a photo of the Earth and the Moon as it heads to its destination, the country’s space agency said on Tuesday.
The image, which shows the two celestial bodies as small crescents in the empty darkness of space, was taken 1.2 million kilometers (746,000 miles) from Earth three days after the mission launched Tianwen-1 on Thursday, the China National Space Administration said. .
China joined the United States and the United Arab Emirates this month to launch a mission to Mars, taking advantage of a time when Mars and Earth are favorably aligned.
The mission, whose name means “Questions to Heaven”, aims to enter Martian orbit seven months after launch and free a small rover to study the surface of the planet.
This is the final leg of Beijing’s space program, which sent two rovers to the moon and set up satellite navigation, Beidou, to compete with the United States’ GPS.
The National Space Administration said Tuesday that Tianwen-1, which has left Earth’s gravitational field, “is currently in good flight condition, has balanced fuel and is operating normally.”
The rover had traveled less than 1.5 million kilometers from Earth on Tuesday, the agency said – just a fraction of the 55 million kilometers it must travel before reaching Mars.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
