After the successful transfer of the UAE’s Mars Hope probe from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai to the launch site on Tanegashima Island in Japan, the launch date has now been announced.
The Emirates Mars Mission, the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, has scheduled to launch the probe on Wednesday July 15.
The journey to the red planet is a whopping 495,000,000km to reach its orbit, where the probe will show complete pictures of the Mars atmosphere and its layers when it reaches the red planet’s orbit in 2021.
As for the scheduled launch, the world can watch the countdown and blast off on Wednesday July 15 at 12.51pm GST from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre.
“The challenges overcome by the Hope Probe team amidst the global pandemic confirm the UAE mission’s commitment to achieve the impossible,” said Her Excellency Sarah Bint Youssef Al-Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Sciences and Emirates Mars Mission Deputy Project Manager.
“Our team continues to work diligently to ensure the mission’s success, and we look forward to collectively celebrate the arrival of the probe on Mars in February 2021 – also coinciding with our 50-year anniversary”.
Earlier this year, the UAE Space Agency announced the successful transportation of the Mars probe from the UAE to Japan, which was an 83-hour operation. Find out more here.
For more information about the Mars 2117 Strategy and other space-related projects, visit emiratesmarsmission.ae.
For further updates on all things space and beyond in Dubai, click here, and in Abu Dhabi, click here.
