China Launches Mars Mission
China set off on what it hopes will be its first successful journey to Mars on Thursday, launching the Tianwen-1 mission to the red planet on a voyage that will last until next year. Unofficial video streams posted by Chinese users of various streaming video platforms showed the Long March 5 rocket on a launchpad at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, ringed by the crystal blue waters that surround the Hainan Island site in China’s south. Crowds of viewers watched and cheered from nearby beaches as the rocket traveled toward the south and east on its way out of Earth’s atmosphere. China’s space agency, in keeping with a tradition of secrecy around much of its space activities, did not broadcast its own official live video of the launch. But within an hour of the launch, state media broadcast footage of the rocket lifting off, and announced that the mission , which includes an orbiter, a lander and a rover, is safely on its way to Mars. It was the second launch of a summer filled with