The mission carried out a historic first-ever combined orbiting, landing and roving in a single launch.
China's Tianwen 1 Mars mission has been awarded one of the spaceflight world's most prestigious awards.
The Tianwen 1 spacecraft lifted off from Wenchang spaceport on July 23, 2020 and entered Mars orbit in February 2021.
The mission carried out a historic first-ever combined orbiting, landing and roving in a single launch, earning the mission the International Astronautical Federation's annual space achievement award on Sunday (Sept. 18) during the 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Paris.
Related: The latest news about China's space program .
Jilian Wang, vice president at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) that developed the spacecraft, presented an overview of the mission and outlined some of the major scientific achievements so far in a highlight lecture, including a global mapping of the Red Planet and a returning data offering evidence for an ancient Martian ocean.
Wang also noted visual highlights from the mission, including Mars orbit selfies and orbital insertion videos.
The mission is named Tianwen 3 and will involve a pair of Long March 5 launches — China's largest rocket — around 2028 to send landing and orbiter spacecraft to the Red Planet. .
UK
Australia
France
Germany
Russia
India
Canada