Dubai's probe begins orbiting Mars 

Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum said the aim of the UAE’s mission to Mars is to give hope to all Arabs.

“The Hope probe will not be the last, but rather the beginning of a journey that has not and will not stop translating the will to succeed, which has become a constant and permanent approach in the UAE’s march. Hope makes the great and the great create hope and spread it around the world, Arabs to Mars,” Sheikh Mohammed said on Twitter.

“In the coming hours, the Hope probe will reach Mars, and the biggest challenge will be to lock into orbit. 50% of human missions could not enter orbit. But even if we could not enter the orbit, we’ve already made history. This is the farthest point in the universe to be reached by Arabs throughout their history … Our goal is to give hope to all Arabs that we are capable of competing with the rest of the world,” he said.

WATCH: UAE launches Arab world’s first mission to Mars

“More than five million hours of work by more than 200 Emirati engineers. Our goal is to give hope to all Arabs, that we are able to compete with the rest of nations and peoples. We ask God for success in reaching the planet Mars,” he added.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai announced yesterday that its space probe named Hope had reached Mars at 7:42 pm UAE time, and sent its signal back to Earth just over half an hour later.

“204 days and more than 480 million kms later, the #HopeProbe is now in the Capture Orbit of #Mars,” the official Twitter account of the Hope Mars Mission tweeted shortly afterward, with the hashtag #ArabsToMars.

The entry of the Hope Probe into the orbit of Mars is a significant accomplishment in our nation’s history. This achievement was made possible by the Emirati pioneers whose work will inspire future scientists and engineers for generations. We are immensely proud of them.

— محمد بن زايد (@MohamedBinZayed) February 9, 2021