China launches rocket in attempt to reach Mars

China on Thursday launched a rocket into space on a path to reach Mars, its most ambitious mission yet as it seeks to become the second nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the planet.

The Long March-5 carrier rocket took off from Hainan island Thursday afternoon at 12:41 local time, marking the first attempt to reach Mars since a failed attempt by Russia several years ago.

#China successfully launched its Mars mission #Tianwen1. Liu Tongjie, spokesman for the mission, says:” It will help China achieve a significant technological leap in its deep space exploration and establish an independent deep-space exploration engineering system. pic.twitter.com/2kqV9g5TId

— T-House (@thouse_opinions) July 23, 2020

The state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the space launch was a “success” and that about 36 minutes into the flight, the spacecraft “was sent into the Earth-Mars transfer orbit, embarking on an almost seven-month journey to the red planet.” 

Chinese scientists hope to use the Mars rover on board to map the planet’s geological structure and examine Mars’s water-ice distribution, among other things, according to the mission’s chief scientist.  

Space exploration has emerged as a top priority for Beijing, with Chinese President Xi Jinping saying earlier this year he wants to make the country a “great space power as soon as possible.”

The launch comes days after the United Arab Emirates launched its Mars probe to study the atmosphere around the planet.

The U.S. is the only country to have successfully landed and operated a rover on Mars’s surface and is currently preparing for a launch of NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover, which is set to be shot into space on July 30. 

China has maintained it is not looking to compete with other nations and is focused on exploring the universe, Liu Tongjie, spokesman for the mission, said in a press briefing, according to The Associated Press.