The UAE Space Agency and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, announced a new launch date for the Emirates Mars Mission.
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) July 14, 2020
The Hope probe will launch on Friday, July 17, 2020 at 12:43am UAE time (Thursday, July 16, 2020 at 8:43pm GMT) from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center after weather conditions caused a delay to the mission.
The two-day delay came after the launch team in Japan and the UAE’s control room team held a meeting with the team in charge of the launch site at Japan’s Tanegashima island where the mission was given a no-go following a weather evaluation.
The probe was scheduled to launch in the early hours of Wednesday morning in July 15, 2020 at 12:51am UAE time, but storm clouds rolled in around the launch pad ahead of the scheduled liftoff.
Weather conditions
Weather conditions play a central role in ensuring a safe rocket launch to space due to the weather’s impact on the upper atmosphere. A further evaluation will be conducted five hours before the new launch time, and once again an hour before liftoff.
According to the weather forecasts by the Japan Meteorological Agency, heavy rainstorms are expected to continue in southern and central Japan.
Since July 4, Japan has been reeling from devastating rains and flooding that damaged 14,000 properties hitting the southwestern-most island of Kyushu, while heavy rains have spread into the central mainland.
Launch window
The new liftoff, scheduled on July 17, 2020, meets the launch window that extends until August 3, 2020. The launch window has been set after careful study of the earth and Mars orbits to ensure the Hope probe arrives in the shortest period of time consuming the least levels of energy.
The delay of Mars space missions is commonly caused by unsuitable weather conditions and technical issues.
For updates please visit www.emm.ae/live