Beijing, May 15 (BNA): China has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time, the Chinese space agency has announced.

The landing module of the Tianwen-1 spacecraft touched down on the surface of the Red Planet on Saturday morning with the Zhurong rover on board, Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) has reported.

Tianwen-1 took off from Earth on July 23 and reached the red planet’s orbit in February.

The flight is one of the most difficult that China has ever undertaken. The landing is a huge challenge, as Mars has its own atmosphere, unlike the moon.

A parachute and brake thrusters helped slow down the Chinese probe; the vehicle initially hovered about 100 metres above the Martian surface to identify obstacles before finding a suitable landing site.

The manoeuvre was "extremely complicated," Chinese state media cited Geng Yan, an official with the space programme, as saying. "Each step had only one chance. The actions were closely linked. If there had been only one mistake, the landing would have failed," Yan said.

President Xi Jinping congratulated the scientists involved.

If all goes to plan, the Zhurong rover, named for the Chinese god of fire, will investigate the Red Planet for at least three months.

The rovers weighs around 240 kilograms, has six wheels and four solar panels and can move on the surface of Mars at 200 metres per hour.

It carries scientific instruments that will be used to gather information about the composition of the planet's surface and its geological structure and climate.

With its first Mars landing, new space power China wants to catch up with the United States, which has already sent several research devices to roam the planet.

The Soviet Union had a successful landing in the 1970s, but ultimately lost contact with their probe.

Beijing has steadily expanded its space programme over the past few years and has missions planned for decades into the future.

After several successful flights to the moon, China began building its own space station at the end of April. The 22-ton Tianhe, which is to form the core module of the space station, was brought up by a rocket at that time. It is expected to be completed around 2022.

In the coming weeks, two more space flights are to follow in close succession. In May, the cargo spacecraft Tianzhou 2 could already dock with fuel and supplies. Three astronauts are also preparing to fly to Tianhe on board the Shenzhou 12, possibly in June. 

The Chinese Mars mission is one of three flights to Mars that launched from Earth last summer. The other launches were by the US and the United Arab Emirates.

The US Perseverance rover landed in February.

AOQ