Tianwen 1 enters Martian orbit

The space administration published on Friday a black-and-white picture of Mars taken by Tianwen 1 when the probe was about 2.2 million kilometers from the red planet, the first snapshot of the red planet from the Chinese craft.

Tianwen 1 is the world's 46th Mars exploration mission since October 1960, when the former Soviet Union launched the world's first Mars-bound spacecraft. Only 18 of those missions were successful.

In the second step in China's Mars exploration program, a larger probe will set off for Mars around 2030 to take samples and then return to Earth, space officials have said.