Despite re-scheduling the launch of Hope Probe from July 15 to 17, the lift-off of the first Arab interplanetary mission may still change, the lead of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) cautioned.
“Safety comes first,” Omran Sharaf, EMM Hope Probe project manager, told reporters via a Zoom conference on Tuesday, a day before the original launch date.
“The two-day delay came after the launch team in Japan and the control room team in Dubai held a meeting with the team in charge of the launch site at Japan’s Tanegashima island where the mission was given a ‘no-go’ following a weather evaluation,” an EMM statement said.
“The probe was scheduled to launch on July 15, 2020 at 12:51am from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre (TNSC), but storm clouds rolled in around the launch pad ahead of the scheduled liftoff,” it added.
According to reports, heavy rain has fallen for more than a week in large areas of Japan, triggering mudslides and floods and killing several people, most of them on the southern main island of Kyushu. Tanegashima is part of a cluster of islands south of Kyushu.
Within launch window
Sharaf, however, reiterated there is still enough time to launch Hope Probe within the so-called launch window, which is until August 3, 2020.
The launch window is the period when Earth and Mars are closest to each other. Hope Probe must be launched within this time to take advantage of the shortest period and least amount of energy needed to reach Mars orbit.