Watch the United Arab Emirates launch its first mission to Mars

The United Arab Emirates is counting down for the launch of its first interplanetary space mission today, one that will send a spacecraft called “Hope” to orbit Mars. The Emirates Mars mission will aim to provide a global snapshot of the climate on the red planet. It will also be a source of pride for the United Arab Emirates, as the country celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding in December 2021.

To ensure Hope is truly on Mars for the anniversary, the UAE should launch this summer. Planetary scientists have a very small window every two years to send spacecraft to Mars, when the Red Planet and Earth align closely in their orbits. If Hope launches in July, the spacecraft will spend the next seven months traveling to Mars, arriving sometime in February, leaving plenty of time in orbit before the anniversary.

Hope is being launched on top of a Japanese H-IIA rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center, located on an island off the country’s southern coast. In Tanegashima, the launch will take place in the early morning of July 20 at 6:58 am On the East Coast of the United States, the launch is at 5:58 PM ET this afternoon.

Image: Emirates Mars Mission

Approximately an hour after launch, the H-IIA rocket will deploy Hope into space, setting it on its way to Mars. The probe will extend its solar panels and direct them toward the Sun to begin generating power. The Emirates Mars Mission team operating the spacecraft will also attempt to contact the vehicle, while trying to stabilize and then head into deep space.

Approximately 28 days after launch, Hope will slightly correct her course by burning her onboard thrusters, the first of many correction maneuvers she will do on the way to Mars. Such burns are necessary to keep Hope on her way to meet a small window on Mars and then insert herself into the planet’s orbit. “It’s a very small target,” said Pete Withnell, mission program manager at Colorado Boulder University, which partnered with the Emirates Mars Mission, during a press call before launch. “It is equivalent to an archer hitting a two-millimeter target, one kilometer away. So this is not for the faint of heart. “

The Emirates Mission Mars plans to provide multiple live streams of the launch, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which operates the H-IIA rocket, will also provide a live stream. Most transmissions start at 3 p.m. ET and will provide great coverage before the UAE’s first attempt to put a vehicle into deep space.