RELATED: Look out, Mars: Here we come with a fleet of spacecraftThe launch, initially planned for July 15, had been delayed for five days due to bad weather.The probe will study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change while circling Mars for at least two years.
The craft is expected to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since its formation.A Japanese H-IIA rocket blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center on a small southern Japanese island on time at 6:58 a.m. (21:58 GMT Sunday) into the blue sky.AdvertisementAt Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai, Emirati men in their traditional white kandora robes and women in their black abayas watched transfixed as the rocket lifted off.