Less than a year after the UAEs first astronaut went into space, space history will be made again when the UAE becomes the first Arab country to send a probe to Mars.
The Hope Probe (Al Amal in Arabic), was scheduled to take off on board a rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre at 5.51.27am local time (00.51.27am UAE time) in the early hours of tomorrow (15 July) morning, however that has been postponed due to weather by a few days and is expected to take off in the early hours of Friday 17 July at 00.43am UAE time.
The Hope Probe is expected to reach Mars' atmosphere, 493.5 kilometres away, after 7 months, in February next year, and will orbit for a Martian year, which is 687 days, and aims to produce the first global map of the Mars' atmosphere.
Another historic moment will see the countdown to the launch from Tanegashima Space Centre carried out in Arabic.
The launch can be seen live on a dedicated Emirates Mars Mission website here.