UAE to become first Arab nation with launch of Mars probe
(World News Science)

DUBAI : The United Arab Emirates plans to make history Wednesday with the scheduled launch of the `Hope` mission, which will make it the first Arab nation to send a probe to Mars. A rocket carrying the unmanned spacecraft is due to take off from Japan`s remote Tanegashima Space Center at 5:51 am local time (2051 GMT Tuesday) although poor weather could delay lift-off until later in a launch window that runs until August 13. The Emirati project is one of three racing to Mars, including Tianwen-1 from China and Mars 2020 from the United States, taking advantage of the period when the Earth and Mars are nearest: a mere 55 million kilometres (34 million...