Look: Mission accomplished! When UAE reached Mars four years ago

The stakes were high and the challenges were immense four years ago when the day arrived for the most critical and demanding part of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM). Precision was key and every move was calculated and contingencies were ready. If Hope Probe went too fast or too slow, it would either crash on Mars or widely miss its orbit and get lost in deep space.

The UAE's leaders were present at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Al Khawaneej to monitor every detail of the Mars Orbit Insertion. The mood was also tense at Burj Plaza, where dozens of journalists (including those from Khaleej Times), professors, engineers, scholars, MBRSC staff, and other VIPs were gathered watching updates on Hope Probe's journey – the Arab world's first interplanetary mission.

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Burj Khalifa – the world's tallest building – served as a towering background and witness to the historic event that would make the UAE the fifth country in the world to reach Mars.

All prompts to Hope Probe were pre-programmed. There was no real-time command that the ground crew at the MBRSC command centre could send to the probe as there was a 22-minute delay in communicating with the spacecraft. It required 11 minutes to send a message and another 11 minutes to receive a reply – hence the need for autonomous manoeuvres; and every minute was filled with tension and anticipation.

Then, the calm and commanding voice of Omran Sharaf, project director of the Emirates Mars Mission, broke the silence as he announced the good news: Marhaba Mars!

“Mission accomplished,” tweeted Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who has taught the country to dream big. The Mars mission – first announced by the late President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on July 16, 2014 – was a success. The UAE's ambitious space programme was realised and Hope Probe's arrival in Mars was perfectly timed with the country's golden jubilee celebration.

As reported by Khaleej Times on February 9, 2021, at 7.42pm local time, the UAE became the first Arab country and the fifth in the world - after the US, Russia, the EU and India - to reach Mars, as Hope Probe slung into the Martian orbit. It travelled for 204 days and more than 480 million kilometres after lift-off.

The monumental feat did not only add a golden feather in the UAE's space cap, it also sent a message of hope across the region and beyond. Named Al Amal in Arabic, “a big part of the mission was to inspire the Emirati and Arab youth to embrace space exploration,” noted Sharaf.

Today, February 9, 2025, Hope Probe is still orbiting Mars. It has been 1,665 days since it was launched from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre on July 20, 2020. It has completed a portrait of the Martian atmosphere and evaluated its seasonal and daily changes. All data collected is available for free and can be accessed on the mission's website.

Sarah Al Amiri, then Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chair of the UAE Space Agency, summed up the UAE Mars Mission: “It opened new scientific horizons and turned the UAE into a knowledge-exporting country – instead of an importer of knowledge, sharing with the world for the first time, unprecedented data captured by Hope Probe.”

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Angel Tesorero

angel@khaleejtimes.com

Angel Tesorero is Assistant Editor and designated funny guy in the newsroom, but dead serious about writing on transport, labour migration, and environmental issues. He is a food lover too.

Thanweeruddin Mohammad

Staff Writer

thanweer@khaleejtimes.com

Thanweeruddin Mohammad oversees KT research and photo desk. Aside from his daily activities in the newsroom, he is also a fitness enthusiast who loves playing cricket and other outdoor games.