UAE Launches “Hope”, Arab’s First Mission to Mars

The first-ever historic mission to Mars is underway in the United Arab Emirates after a successful liftoff in Japan.

A Japanese rocket launched the first mission of the United Arab Emirates to Mars on July 19 that will study the weather of the planet while demonstrating the growing capacity of the country in space.

Hope is a 1,350 kg satellite built by the UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC). On February 2021, the spacecraft will arrive at Mars and go into an initial elliptical orbit between 1,000 and 49,380 kilometers above the earth. For science observations, it will later travel into its target orbit, with altitudes ranging from 20,000 to 43,000 kilometers.

The lead for Hope, Her Excellency Sarah Al Amiri, spoke of her joy in seeing the rocket ascend successfully into the atmosphere. And she said the effect on her country will be the same as on America when her people witnessed the landing of the Apollo 11 Moon on July 20, 51 years ago.

“One of the requirements very early on was to send a mission that does more than capture an image declaring that the UAE reached Mars,” said Sarah al-Amiri, UAE minister of state for advanced sciences and deputy project manager for Hope. “We are the very first weather satellite for Mars.”