Word has come from the UAE’s first successful lunar mission launch just a few days ago.
The message we’ve all been waiting for is here!
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, just announced in a tweet that the ‘Rashid Rover has sent the first message to the space centre in Al Khawaneej.’
The Dubai Ruler said the message came ‘from a distance of 440,000 km from the surface of the Earth. All the devices and systems of the explorer are working properly.’
He added that the Rashid Rover has also begun ‘to enter the orbit of the moon.’
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Just this weekend, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the UAE’s Rashid rover blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the U.S.
It’s the first Emirati mission to the moon, and came on the same day Apollo 17, the last mission to the lunar surface had landed. Weighing 10 kilograms, the four-wheeled rover will take a low-energy route to the moon rather than a direct approach. So expect a successful landing around April 2023!
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