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China succeeds in first Mars landing

Sci-Tech

A Chinese spacecraft streaked down through the Martian sky on Saturday, becoming the country's first probe to land on a planet other than Earth.

XinhuaUpdated: May 17, 2021

A Chinese spacecraft streaked down through the Martian sky on Saturday, becoming the country's first probe to land on a planet other than Earth.

The lander, carrying a Mars rover, touched down at its pre-selected landing area in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the northern hemisphere of Mars, at 7:18 a.m. (Beijing Time), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.

China's first Mars rover is named Zhurong after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology, which echoes with the Chinese name of the red planet: Huoxing (the planet of fire).