China has successfully landed a spacecraft containing a rover on Mars for the first time, according to state media, in a further sign of the country’s bold ambitions in the realm of space exploration.

The rover was part of the Tianwen-1 unmanned mission launched in July last year. Tianwen means “questions to heaven” and was named after a work by 3rd-4th century Chinese poet Qu Yuan.

The mission, which was described by Chinese media as a “new major milestone” and the “first step in China’s planetary exploration of the solar system”, was intended to match US successes in landing on the red planet. In February, Nasa’s Perseverance rover, equipped with a helicopter, landed successfully on Mars, while the United Arab Emirates-led “Hope” probe reached Mars’s orbit.