China’s rover Zhurong, named after the mythological fire god, successfully touched down on Mars on May 14 – the first time that China has successfully landed a rover on the red planet. On May 19, China’s National Space Administration issued the first images the rover had taken on Mars. After a summer of Mars launches in 2020, and with 2021 shaping up to be a successful one for landers and orbiters, it might seem like landing on Mars is routine. Yet to understand why a first successful landing is such a huge achievement, we need to look back at the…

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