21 July 2020
China's space tracking ship Yuanwang 3 has set sail from a Shanghai-based shipyard after completing maintenance in early July. Already on 13 July, Yuanwang 6 departed from its port in Jiangsu Province for supporting multiple spacecraft monitoring missions. In the meanwhile, China has completed the modification of two relay satellites to prepare them for new tasks relating to the country's scheduled Mars exploration mission Tianwen 1. The Tianlian 1-02 and Tianlian 2-01 geosynchronous orbit satellites mainly provide global tracking and data-relay support for the country's in-orbit spacecraft.

22 July 2020
Leonard David had a look at the several logo stickers on the payload fairing of the Long March 5 which is currently readied for its launch to Mars. He found out the details about international involvement in China's first fully fledged Mars mission (Yinghuo not counted): "Following the completion of multiple integrated rehearsals, China is ready for the launch of its first fully home-grown Mars mission. At the Long March-5 rollout, the booster's protective payload fairing was seen to be adorned with European (ESA), French (CNES), Argentine (CONAE) and Austrian (FFG) space agency logos, in addition to that of the CNSA."
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23 July 2020
The Tianwen 1 Mars mission launched on board the Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang cosmodrome on Hainan island at 12:41 BJT (04:41 UTC). "The successful launch is only the first step of China's Mars mission, and we hope each of the many key steps of the long journey is completed successfully," said Geng Yan, an official at the Lunar Exploration and Space Programme Centre of CNSA.
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23 July 2020
China's first Mars probe Tianwen 1 was launched on 23 July with the Mars Landing Surveillance Camera (Mars Camera) developed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). According to PolyU, the Mars Camera is one of the key instruments onboard the Mars spacecraft. Located on the outside top surface of the Mars lander platform, the Mars Camera will monitor the landing status, the surrounding environment and movements of the rover with respect to the unfolding and status of the solar panels and antennae.
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