China launches first Mars rover mission in space race with US

A Mars probe is launched on a Long March-5 rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province Source: Xinhua News Agency/PA Images

The Chinese mission is named Tianwen-1 – a nod to a classical poem that has verses about the cosmos. But the race to watch is between the United States and China, which has worked furiously to try and match Washington’s supremacy in space.The next one, Perseverance, is an SUV-sized vehicle that will look for signs of ancient microbial life, and gather rock and soil samples with the goal of bringing them back to Earth on another mission in 2031.

China has already sent two rovers to the Moon. With the second, China became the first country to make a successful soft landing on the far side.

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