China’s state media reported on Tuesday that Tianwen-1 is now 100 million km or 60 miles from the Earth after launching in July and has been hailed as an important milestone on its journey
But the space craft has already traveled much further than that, over 360 million km as it preformed a series of orbital man-oeuvres as it moved away from the Earth’s orbit and approached the red planet (Mars).
Tianwen-1 is expected to land on Mars in February next year and it will be 190 million km from Earth after traveling more than 500 million km to get there according to Chinese scientists.
The space craft has traveled for 144 days non-stop according to China’s national space administration.
China has increased its space exploration activities of recent with a probe on far side of the moon and Change 5 which collected soils and rocks on the moon before setting on the journey back to Earth increasing fears of starting space race with USA.
Yosam Mukundane Is a political and socio-economic policy analyst at Forsige and a reporter covering Africa and Asia from Uganda.
