BEIJING (AFP) – China’s Zhurong rover touched down on Mars early Saturday, state media reported, a triumph for Beijing’s increasingly bold space ambitions and a history-making feat for a nation on its first-ever Martian mission.
The lander carrying Zhurong completed the descent through the Martian atmosphere using a parachute to navigate the "seven minutes of terror” as it is known, aiming for a vast northern lava plain known as the Utopia Planitia.
The mission "successfully landed in the pre-selected area”, state broadcaster CCTV said, while the official Xinhua news agency cited the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in confirming the touchdown.
It makes China the first country to carry out an orbiting, landing and roving operation during its first mission to Mars -- a feat unmatched by the only other two nations to reach the Red Planet, the U.S. and Russia.
Zhurong, named after a Chinese mythical fire god, arrives a few months behind America’s latest probe to Mars -- Perseverance -- as the show of technological might between the two superpowers plays out beyond the bounds of Earth.
Six-wheeled, solar-powered and roughly 240 kilograms, the Chinese rover is on a quest to collect and analyze rock samples from Mars’ surface.
It is expected to spend around three months there.