Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday announced a new date for the launch of its first mission to the surface of the moon— Rashid Rover.
UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced that its rover mission to the Moon will now launch on November 30 at 12:30 pm (UAE time) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, United States.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre announced the move on Twitter on Thursday.
“This date is subject to change depending on the weather status or other conditions,” it said.
The rover is to be launched aboard a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket and deposited on the moon by a Japanese ispace lander sometime in March.
The mission was initially given a launch period from November 9-15, before returning to November 22 and then November 28.
“In collaboration with the partners – SpaceX and ispace, the integrated launch vehicle will start rolling out to the launch pad Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida ahead of launch,” MBRSC said.
Meanwhile, the integrated spacecraft will take a lower-energy route to the Moon rather than a direct approach, and take about five months to launch, in March 2023.
On November 15, Salim Al Marri, Director General of Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre (MBRSC) took to Twitter, to announce that he and his team have arrived in Florida this week for the liftoff of the Emirates’ first Lunar Mission.
“In Florida this week with our team, we are preparing for the launch of the 1st Emirati mission to the Moon. …We are preparing with Nasa for Sultan Al Neyadi’s launch next year,” Al Marri tweeted.
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) signed an agreement with the Japanese company ispace in 2021, to enable the latter to provide payload delivery services to the Emirates Lunar Mission.
