Source: Spaceflight Now
Date Published: 02/15/2021
China’s space agency has released a pair of spectacular video clips from “selfie” cameras on-board the country’s Tianwen 1 spacecraft as it braked into orbit around Mars on Feb. 10. One of the videos shows Tianwen 1’s high-gain directional antenna shaking from vibrations caused by the spacecraft’s main engine, which fired for 15 minutes to slow the probe down enough to be captured into orbit by Martian gravity. Another clip from a different camera is pointed at one of the spacecraft’s two power-generating solar array wings. The Martian horizon, appearing with the planet’s razor thin atmosphere, is visible in both black-and-white views. The time lapse videos also show Martian surface features, such as mountains and craters, as Tianwen 1 passed just a couple hundred miles over the Red Planet. The China National Space Administration released the videos on its website and through the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The Tianwen 1 probe is China’s first spacecraft to reach Mars. The ambitious mission consists of three spacecraft, with an orbiter, lander, and rover riding together for
