{"id":11872,"date":"2021-02-09T21:59:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T13:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/arab-worlds-first-interplanetary-spacecraft-safely-arrives-at-mars\/"},"modified":"2021-02-09T21:59:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T13:59:45","slug":"arab-worlds-first-interplanetary-spacecraft-safely-arrives-at-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/arab-worlds-first-interplanetary-spacecraft-safely-arrives-at-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab world\u2019s first interplanetary spacecraft safely arrives at Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Artist\u2019s concept of the Hope spacecraft arriving in orbit around Mars. Credit: MBRSC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The United Arab Emirates became the fifth nation or space agency to put a spacecraft into orbit around Mars on Tuesday with the arrival of Hope, a probe built in partnership with U.S. scientists to obtain a unique global perspective on the Red Planet\u2019s weather and climate.<\/p>\n

The Hope spacecraft fired a cluster of rocket jets to maneuver into orbit beginning at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Tuesday, while tense engineers gathered at the mission control center in Dubai monitored telemetry streaming back from the probe.<\/p>\n

It took about 11 minutes for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to journey the nearly 119 million miles (191 million kilometers) from Mars to Earth. The time delay meant the planned 27-minute engine burn was nearly halfway over by the time engineers confirmed it started.<\/p>\n

Data streaming down from the Hope spacecraft indicated the probe successfully entered orbit around Mars around 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT).<\/p>\n

Omran Sharaf, project director for the Emirates Mars Mission, announced the completion of the successful Mars Orbit Insertion maneuver, prompting applause and fist bumps in the control center at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai. The famous super-tall Burj Khalifa tower lit up with a special display celebrating the achievement, the first time a spacecraft from the Arab world has reached another planet.<\/p>\n

Seven years ago, the Emirates Mars Mission was just an idea. The UAE had never developed a deep space mission when the government announced the Hope project in 2014.<\/p>\n

Now the Emirati mission makes the UAE the fifth entity to put a satellite into orbit around Mars, following the United States, the former Soviet Union, the European Space Agency, and the Indian Space Research Organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people are in shock, myself included, but there\u2019s a lot of relief, maybe a bit of disbelief on arriving at this milestone and arriving exactly as planned,\u201d said Sarah Al Amiri, the UAE\u2019s minister of state for advanced sciences, and chair of the UAE Space Agency. \u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing journey with a lot of obstacles and a lot of challenges, and to see this come to fruition \u2026 We couldn\u2019t have hoped for a better outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Amiri said a quick-look assessment showed the spacecraft was in orbit around Mars following its make-or-break rocket burn, which was designed to scrub more than 2,200 mph (about 1,000 meters per second) of velocity from Hope\u2019s trajectory relative to Mars. The spacecraft targeted an initial \u201ccapture orbit\u201d ranging between 600 miles and 30,700 miles (1,000-by-49,380 kilometers) from Mars.<\/p>\n

It will take several hours to determine to exact orbit achieved by the Hope, or Al Amal, spacecraft, Al Amiri said. The ground team in Dubai plans a follow-up press conference Wednesday to discuss details of the orbit insertion maneuver.<\/p>\n