UAE's Hope Probe on course to Mars after successful launch from Japan

The craft is expected to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50th year of its formation

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) became the newest member of an exclusive club of nations to send a spacecraft to Mars when it successfully launched the Hope Probe from Japan on Monday.

The Mitsubishi-built H2A rocket blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan to push the probe out of Earth's orbit. The launch comes on the back of six years of planning and development as the rockets propelled the probe towards Mars in a bid to map the atmospheric changes on the Red Planet. 

"Congrats to the team that worked on the Hope Mars Mission. It’s truly amazing what the UAE Space Agency & @MBRSpaceCentre has accomplished in such a short time. Hope is exactly what the world needs and thank you to the UAE & @MHI_Group for inspiring all of us," NASA director Jim Bridenstine said.

The launch of the spacecraft named Amal, or Hope, marks the start of the seven-month journey to the red planet. The launch initially planned for July 15, had been delayed for five days due to bad weather. The probe will study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change while circling Mars for at least two years.

The craft is expected to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since its formation.
A newcomer in space development, the UAE has successfully put three Earth observation satellites into orbit. Two were developed by South Korea and launched by Russia, and a third it's own was launched by Japan.

A successful Hope mission to Mars would be a major step for the oil-dependent economy seeking a future in space, coming less than a year after the launch of the first UAE astronaut, Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. He spent over a week at the International Space Station last fall.

During its cruise, the probe will achieve a speed of 121,000 km/h. (Source: UAE Space Agency)

The UAE has set a goal to build a human colony on Mars by 2117.

Hope, about the size of a small car, carries three instruments to study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change while circling the red planet for at least two years. It is set to follow up on NASA's Maven orbiter sent to Mars in 2014 to study how it went from a warm, wet world that may have harbored microbial life during its first billion years, to the cold, barren place of today.

Hope also plans to send back images of weather changes.

Meanwhile, NASA is in final phase for sending off the Perseverance rover to Mars, scheduled to take off on July 30. The rover will land on Martian surface and look for ancient microbial life ahead of proposed manned missions.