Yahoo News UAE Mars Orbiter Hope: 2020 launch date and how to watch
The launch of the UAE’s Mars orbiter has been postponed due to bad weather.
Amal, otherwise known as Hope, was initially set to take off on Wednesday from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan.
However, due to conditions that were not favourable for the flight, its team announced the date had been rescheduled on Twitter.
The mission is being hailed as the first interplanetary lift-off from an Arab nation.
When has it been rescheduled?
Ahead of the mission on Monday, Mitsubishi launch official, Keiji Suzuki, had said a postponement was "possible" as intermittent lightning and rain were forecast over the next few days.
Heavy rain has fallen for more than a week in large areas of Japan, triggering mudslides and floods and killing more than 70 people, most of them on the southern main island of Kyushu.
How can the weather impact the Go/No-go decision of the Hope Probe launch? #HopeMarsMission pic.twitter.com/wIJmgErFCv
— Hope Mars Mission (@HopeMarsMission)
The launch is now scheduled to take place between the 20th and 22nd July 2020, depending on improved weather
Why was Hope launched?
Hope is set to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since its formation.
A successful Hope mission would be a major step for the oil-dependent economy seeking a future in space.
Hope will be carrying three instruments to study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change and is scheduled to circle the Red Planet for at least two years.
Emirates Mars Mission project director Omran Sharaf, said the mission will provide a complete view of the Martian atmosphere during different seasons for the first time.
The UAE Space Agency and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, have announced that the new launch date for the# HopeProbe to Mars – the first Arab interplanetary mission- will be on Friday 17th July, 2020. #HopeMarsMission pic.twitter.com/2pI0kFrrv4
— Hope Mars Mission (@HopeMarsMission)
Two other Mars missions are planned in coming days by the US and China.
The three nearly simultaneous launches are no coincidence: The timing is dictated by the opening of a one-month window in which Mars and Earth are in ideal alignment on the same side of the sun, which minimises travel time and fuel use. Such a window opens only once every 26 months.
Japan has its own Martian moon mission planned in 2024.
How can I watch it?
The launch can be streamed online.
Until it is ready to go, space enthusiasts can view a real-time countdown clock in the meantime.
Watch the live launch here.
