China completes historic Mars spacecraft landing (update)

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, members at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre celebrate after China's Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed on Mars, at the center in Beijing, Saturday, May 15, 2021. China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in the latest advance for its ambitious goals in space. - AP

BEIJING, May 15 (Reuters): An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Saturday (May 14), state news agency Xinhua reported, making China the second space-faring nation after the United States to land on the Red Planet.

The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a site on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia, "leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first time," Xinhua said.