In a first, a spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates successfully entered orbit around Mars Tuesday, marking the first interplanetary mission for an Arab country, the Associated Press reports.
The spacecraft, named Amal which is Arabic for Hope, is the first of three missions from Earth to arrive at Mars this week, with spacecraft from the United States and China scheduled to arrive later this week. The missions were planned to take advantage of the close conjunction of the two planets, allowing them to cut down on travel time and fuel usage.
The UAE becomes the fifth Earth-bound nation to send a probe to the Red Planet. The success of a Mars spacecraft is an iffy prospect: about 60% of the probes sent to the planet have failed, either overshooting their target or plummeting to the planet surface uncontrolled.
The Chinese craft includes an rover and an orbiter. It will enter into an orbit around the planet and release an entry pod containing the rover that will be released to land on a predetermined location on the planet surface. If it lands as planned, China will be the second Earth nation to successfully land a probe on the surface of Mars.
The US spacecraft Perseverance will land on Mars on February 18th, making it the third US operating landing craft on the surface if it’s successful.
There are six probes from Earth circling Mars right now: three from the US, two from the European Space Agency and one from India.