Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates’ Rashid Rover – the Arab world’s first mission to the Moon – was launched on Sunday.
The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the UAE’s Rashid rover successfully took off at 11:38 am UAE time (01:08 pm IST) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center stated, in a series of tweets via its Twitter account, that the launch of the Falcon 9 missile was successful.
The center said, “The main engine of the first stage of the Falcon 9 missile has been successfully stopped. The first and second stages of the missile have now been separated, the second engine of the missile has been started, and the payload cover has been opened successfully.”
Watch the launch below
The Rashid Rover is now on its way to the Moon aboard the Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander, built by Japanese lunar exploration company ispace, on a journey that is expected to last five months.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, were in the control room of the UAE Space Agency for observation.
“Reaching the moon is another milestone in the ambitious march of a country and a nation whose aspirations have no limits,” Sheikh Mohammed said on Twitter.
Rashid Rover is part of UAE’s ambitious space programme that started with Mars passing through the Moon and to Venus.
“Passing on knowledge, developing our capabilities, and adding a scientific footprint in human history is or goal,” he further said.
The lunar rover has six missions; It is the study of rock science, plasma, dust, soil, and data to develop new techniques and gather data related to the origin of the solar system and planet Earth.
The spacecraft will take a low-energy route to the moon instead of a direct approach, as the journey takes about five months after launch, while the explorer is scheduled to land on the moon by April 2023.
At the beginning of this month, SpaceX postponed the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, to a date that it said would be determined soon, after examining the missile and reviewing the data.
