Dubai
Following a successful launch, the UAE’s Hope Probe is in a healthy state and cruising safely towards Mars, Omran Sharaf, project manager of Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) announced during a press briefing on Monday.
The official briefed reporters after Hope Probe reached its space orbit one hour after it took off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre (TNSC) in the early hours of July 20, after two cancellations on July 15 and July 17 due to bad weather.
Earlier, a United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed into blue skies from a Japanese launch centre on Monday at the start of a seven-month journey to Mars on the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
The liftoff of the Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, starts a rush to fly to Earth’s neighbour that is scheduled to be followed in the next few days by China and the United States.
At the space centre in Dubai, people watching were transfixed by the liftoff, then cheered and clapped, with one woman offering a celebratory cry common for weddings.
Amal blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-IIA rocket on time at 6:58am (2158 GMT Sunday) after being delayed five days by bad weather.—AP