Cairo Tower Lights up in Red to Celebrate UAE Hope Probe's Arrival to Mars

Egypt's famous landmark, the Cairo Tower lit up in red to celebrate United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s Hope Probe's successful arrival to Mars.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) made history on Tuesday as the first Arab country to reach Mars.

The UAE mission to Mars “Hope Probe” reached the red planet at 7:42 pm., UAE time. The ground control team at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai erupted to cheers after the mission sent its response signal back to Earth after just half an hour.

“After 204 days and more than 480 million kilometers, the Hope Probe is now in the Mars Orbit,” the official Hope Mars Mission wrote in a tweet.

Since more than half of all Mars missions actually failed, experts have estimated the chance of successfully entering Mars orbit at about 50% success chance. 

The Hope Probe had to drastically slow down from its 100,000 kilometers per hour to 18,000 kilometers per hour by firing its six thrusts for exactly 27 minutes, using up half of its fuel, and enabling it to be caught by Mars’ gravity.

In the meantime, there was a delay in signal of about 11 minutes to return to Earth as the scientists and engineers involved in the project waited in tense anticipation.

The Hope Probe is a $200 million project, which was launched on July 20 from Japan’s Tanegashima station, and will now spend one Martian year, the equivalent of 687 days on Earth, to study and collect data on Mars’ atmosphere.