>> Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times Published: 15 May 2021 11:22 AM BdST Updated: 15 May 2021 11:22 AM BdST China has now accomplished something that only the United States and (very briefly) the Soviet Union had done before: a successful landing on Mars. "); } Having orbited the planet since February, a Chinese craft, called Tianwen-1, sent a landing vehicle on a difficult descent to its surface, where it touched down on Saturday. The vehicle, which is carrying a land rover, joined three NASA spacecraft that were already surveying the planet. The Chinese Mars mission may seem less sexy than NASA’s latest, since it is essentially repeating feats that the Americans accomplished decades ago, but it represents another milestone in China’s ambition to make itself a “great space power,” as its top leader, Xi Jinping, put it last month.