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The race to Mars has officially begun with the launch of the first Arab space mission to the red planet on July 20 in Japan.

DiscoverMHI (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.) (YouTube)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. launched the H-IIA rocket from Japan carrying the Mars orbiter called 'Hope', developed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The liftoff occurred at 6:58 a.m. (Japan Standard Time) at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture.

About an hour after launch, the Hope probe successfully detached from the rocket.

The Crown Prince of Dubai Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum tweeted a short video clip of the launch with the caption: “There is no 'impossible' where there is faith and strong will.”

There is no “impossible” where there is faith and strong will. pic.twitter.com/A6U6QoZUA4

-- Hamdan bin Mohammed (@HamdanMohammed) July 20, 2020

UAE's Hope is one of the three missions racing to Mars this year. The other two are Tianwen-1 from China scheduled to launch on July 23, and the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover from the United States whose target launch date is on July 30.

These missions are taking advantage of the fact that Mars will be at its closest proximity to Earth on October 6, 2020, with only a 38.6 million miles distance between them.

Artist's view of Mars during close approach in 2018 and 2020
Source: NASA

The Hope probe is expected to reach the orbit of Mars in February 2021, but unlike the other Mars missions, it will not land on the planet's surface, but instead will orbit it for 687 days or a whole Martian year.

The initial objective of the UAE's first space mission to Mars is to investigate the weather dynamics in the planet's atmosphere.

But the much bigger goal behind it is to eventually build a human settlement on the red planet within the next 100 years.

In case you missed it, you can watch the historic launch of the first Arab space mission to Mars below.

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