The UAE’s Hope probe sent its first sighting of Mars back to Earth as it clocked up more than one million kilometres on its journey into space.
Four days after it made its historic blast off from its launch site in Japan, orbiter got its first glimpse of the Red Planet.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, shared the image on Twitter.
We received the Hope probe's first sighting of its destination, Mars, after the spacecraft travelled one million km into space. Beyond the sky is where our dreams start. pic.twitter.com/jN7MBxKa7U
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) July 22, 2020
"We received the Hope probe's first sighting of its destination, Mars, after the spacecraft travelled one million [kilometres] into space," he said.
"Beyond the sky is where our dreams start."
Officials and engineers who helped build and launch the probe breathed a sigh of relief on Monday when the craft transmitted its first signals home to Dubai via Nasa's deep-space network just hours after its launch.
Hope is expected to enter Mars' orbit in February, more than 200 days after take off.
It will collect scientific data about the planet's unique weather system to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere.
Once Hope reaches its final destination, it would have completed a total journey of about 495 million kilometres.
