China launches unmanned Mars mission
The probe blasted off at 12:41 p.m. Beijing time (0441 GMT) on China's largest carrier rocket, the Long March 5 Y-4, from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan.
It is expected to reach Mars in February where it will attempt to deploy a rover to explore the planet for 90 days.
The probe carries several scientific instruments to observe the planet's atmosphere and surface, searching for signs of water and ice.
If successful, the latest mission - Tianwen-1, or "Questions to Heaven," a Chinese poem penned two millennia ago - will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover in its inaugural mission.
