China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft will reach Mars orbit on February 10

China's Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and rover are speeding toward the Red Planet and preparing to arrive on Feb. 10, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has said.

Tianwen-1 has been in space for nearly 24 weeks and was around 81 million miles (130 million kilometers) from Earth and 5.15 million miles (8.3 million km) from Mars on Jan. 3 Beijing time, according to CNSA.

With all systems working normally, the spacecraft is due to enter Mars orbit on Feb. 10, according to China's CCTV news network. The five-ton spacecraft will perform a burn of its engines to slow it down enough to be captured by Mars" gravitational pull. 

Related: China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe snaps epic deep-space selfie (photos) 

China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe is seen by a tiny camera ejected from the spacecraft in a photo captured 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) from Earth. (Image credit: CNSA)

Tianwen-1 will be about 118 million miles (190 million kilometers) away from the Earth when the probe arrives in Mars orbit, after a journey of around 292 million miles (470 million km), CNSA says.

The great distance between Earth and Tianwen-1 means a lightspeed communication delay of around 10 minutes, so real-time control of the spacecraft is not possible. The spacecraft will thus need to carry out commands itself.