China’s Mars rover makes contact with red planet’s surface

China’s first Mars rover is now driving along the surface of the red planet after exiting its landing platform Saturday, marking the latest step in a historic space mission for Beijing.

The rover’s Twitter account announced that it had officially touched down on the surface, posting a video of the process.

Now I’m “literally” on Mars surface. At UTC 2:40, May 22, #Zhurong (#Tianwen1) Mars Rover drove down to the surface of the red planet from the lander. Here’s the the process captured by both front and rear cameras. First batch of scientific data will be obtained later this month. pic.twitter.com/DfCvAvLmSW

— Chinese Zhurong Mars Rover (@MarsZhurong) May 22, 2021

The rover, named Zhurong, was first launched on July 23 and entered Mars’s orbit in February.

China’s mission makes it part of a three-country club of those that have reached Mars, joining just the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates.

Landing on Mars is particularly difficult due to the planet’s thin atmosphere, meaning crafts often land on the planet at high speeds.

Beijing’s space program has been buoyed by a string of successes, including launching a core module of a new orbiting space station last month and retrieving samples of rocks and soil it collected on the moon in December.

Three astronauts from China are scheduled to be sent back into space in June.