China's Tianwen 1 space probe on its way to Mars ejected a small camera to grab selfies of the spacecraft. See below. The video above, captured by the probe, shows the camera tumbling off into the void. Tianwen 1 launched in July and will enter Mars orbit in February, assuming all goes as planned. From Spaceflight Now:
Two wide-angle lenses on the deployable camera were programmed to one image every second. The images were transmitted back to Tianwen via a wireless radio link, then downlinked back to ground teams in China.
In the images, Tianwen 1's solar array wings and dish-shaped high-gain communications antenna are prominently visible. The white section of the spacecraft is the mission's entry module and heat shield, which contains a Chinese rover designed to land on Mars and explore the surface.
There's also a red Chinese flag visible on the spacecraft. The images were released in conjunction with China's National Day holiday, marking the 71st anniversary of Communist rule there.
