The United Arab Emirates will launch its first interplanetary space probe today, with the Hope mission taking off from a Japanese launchpad. The launch is scheduled for 5:58 p.m. ET.
According to the New York Times and Space.com, this is the first of three missions to Mars scheduled to launch this summer. China will launch a mission at some point in the next few months, although a specific launch date has not been announced. Its mission will include an orbiter, a lander, and a rover.
NASA will launch the Perseverance robotic rover at the end of July. This will be a first-of-its-kind scientific mission, with the rover launching a small helicopter, dubbed Ingenuity, early in its mission to test flight dynamics in the thin, sometimes stormy, Mars atmosphere.
The UAE Hope mission is an orbiter designed at build at the University of Colorado. It will take a high orbit around Mars to give a complete picture of Mars weather patterns. (The New York Times website has a nice graphic about the spacecraft.)
You can watch the launch at the following websites here: https://www.emiratesmarsmission.ae/