The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will launch its first interplanetary mission today (July 19), and you can see the historic takeoff live.
the Emirates Mars Mission, also known as Hope, is slated to launch on an H-IIA rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center today at 5:58 pm EDT (2158 GMT; 6:58 am July 20, Japan standard time). You can follow the action live here at Space.com courtesy of the UAE Space Agency and Dubai One news channel, or directly through the last two organizations here.
Launch webcasts will also be provided by UAE Space Agency and Dubai TV, he UAE Space Agency and Abu Dhabi TVand from Japan Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which built the H-2A rocket.
Mars ‘Hope’: UAE’s first interplanetary spacecraft aims to make history
If all goes as planned, the $ 200 million Hope mission will reach Mars orbit in early 2021, then study the Red Planet from above for at least a year on Mars (just under two Earth years).
The mission will provide one more detailed and comprehensive understanding of the Martian atmosphere, the team members have said. The key to that goal is the unique orbit of Hope’s equator circle, which will give the probe a new perspective on the thin, carbon dioxide-dominated air of the Red Planet.
Related: UAE’s Hope mission to Mars in photos
Hope is not the only spacecraft heading to Mars this summer. China aims to launch its first fully local Mars mission – Tianwen-1, which has an orbiter, lander, and rover, on July 23 (China’s first Mars ship of any kind, the Yinghuo-1 orbiter, rode alongside the Russian mission Phobos-Grunt, which suffered a launch failure in November 2011.) And NASA hunts for life, caching samples Perseverance Rover It is scheduled to take off on July 30.
It is imperative that these missions take off relatively soon, in the case of Perseverance, before August 15. The launch windows of ships destined for Mars are activated only once every 26 months, when Earth and the Red Planet are properly aligned.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
