China's space program: Mars rover sends photos, astronauts fly into orbit

China's space program is going according to plan.

Tomorrow, Thursday, three astronauts are scheduled to take off for the half-finished Tiangong space station for three months.

The Mars rover sends photos of the red planet.

Beijing / Munich - China continues to take one space milestone after another at a breathtaking pace. Tomorrow, Thursday, the first spacecraft with three astronauts will be sent to the main module of its Tiangong space station (Heaven Palace), which is currently under construction. The Chinese space agency announced at a press conference on Wednesday that the launch is scheduled for 9.22 a.m. (3.22 a.m. CET). In addition, a few days ago the Chinese Mars rover Zhurong, named after a fire god, sent several pictures of the surface of the red planet and a “family photo” showing the rover together with its rocket-powered landing platform.

The ramp-up program is a permanent project that the Beijing government is giving high priority to. If the international space station ISS ceases its service as planned in the next few years, China would be the only country that then operates a permanent outpost in space. China is also pushing an ambitious lunar program.

The three astronauts, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, who were presented to the public for the first time on Wednesday, are to take off from the “Jiuquan” space station in the Gobi desert and stay on board the core module of the new station for three months.

The flight program is tightly timed: Another supply flight is scheduled to start in September.

Three more astronauts will follow in October, including possibly a woman for the first time.

China's spatial plan always announces details just before the start.

China's space station: Tightly timed flights to completion

The first module of the “Tiangong” space station, which should be ready by the end of 2022, was sent into space at the beginning of May.

Another cargo flight with material and fuel followed at the end of May.

To complete the space station, two more laboratory modules, each weighing a good 20 tons, will be brought into space.

Two more cargo flights and two manned missions are planned for the next year.

China's Mars Mission According to Plan: New Photos from the Red Planet

The Mars mission also seems to be going according to plan. The new photos, sent wirelessly to Earth via the Tianwen-1 orbiter and distributed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), show the flat terrain of the vast Martian plain, Utopia Planitia, which is covered with small rocks. The 240-kilogram rover landed on Mars on May 14 and, according to the specialist website

expected to spend at least 90 days mapping the surrounding area, looking for signs of water ice, monitoring the weather and the Investigate surface composition.

China's Tianwen-1 mission started in July 2020 and arrived in orbit around Mars in February. Tianwen-1, which in addition to transmitting data from the ground, also collects scientific data about the planet's surface and atmosphere, is expected to remain active for at least one Mars year - 687 Earth days. (