News > Mars ready for its close-up: China releases space probe’s first image

Mars ready for its close-up: China releases space probe’s first image

China's maiden space exploration mission to Mars has captured its first image of the red planet, the space agency said on Friday, some six months after the probe left Earth. The uncrewed Tianwen-1 took the picture at a distance of around 2.2 million km (1.4 million miles) from Mars.

The probe is now only half that distance away from Mars and around 184 million km from Earth after 197 days of the mission.