15 February 2021
On 15 February 2021, Tianwen 1 performed its 1st Mars orbit adjustment. The probe's 3,000 N engine was ignited at 17:00 h when passing the 'apogee' of the Mars orbit. That allowed for a plane change to adjust the orbital inclination to a polar orbit. The manoeuvre also reduced the closest distance to Mars from 400 km to 265 km. There are 3 more orbit corrections expected to bring the current elliptical orbit to a circular working orbit.
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12 February 2021
Experts from the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), the National Satellite Meteorological Centre, Beijing Normal University as well as research institutes from France, Spain, the United States and Israel have initiated a new project to foster cooperation in strengthening global agricultural drought monitoring. Through cooperating with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and its members, the project will focus on establishing a global agricultural drought monitoring system with the Fengyun 3D, providing timely agricultural drought information services for worldwide users.
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09 February 2021
ESPI - the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna has just published its latest publication: "ESPI Report: New Space in Asia". The report gives an overview on commercial space activities in China, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand. China, India and Japan are covered in greater detail, with the two chapters about China providing a broad overview on China's space start-ups. The GoTaikonauts! team and its partners, Blaine Curcio of Orbital Gateway Consulting and Jean Deville of The China Aerospace Blog, provided the content for the technical China part: Chapter 3 'Commercial space ecosystem and trends in China'.
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link to the download page - see report no 77 'New Space in Asia - Full Report'


12 February 2021
CNSA has unveiled the complete footage of the first Chinese Mars probe, Tianwen 1, as it was captured by the gravity of the Red Planet. The footage reveals Mars coming into view, the slight vibration after engine ignition, and its flight from the daytime into the night. It also shows a clear image of the solar panel, the directional antenna, and Mars atmosphere and surface topography. The video was made from the fast playback of still images at a rate of 10 frames per second. The images were taken by surveillance cameras on the solar panel and directional antenna. The cameras took images every 3 seconds for about 30 minutes.
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Tianwen 1's entry into Mars orbit