Once is not custom, the time will also be for big departures this summer in space. Before mid-August, no less than three missions will be launched towards Mars, taking advantage of the shooting window of a few weeks which opens every 26 months to reach the planet at a lower cost. A "bottled up" calendar that could have been even busier if the European Space Agency (ESA) had not had to give up sending its own rover, whose takeoff was postponed to 2022.
Read also: The incredible journey to bring back pieces of Mars to Earth
Before China and the United States, it is the surprising United Arab Emirates which must open this exceptional season this July 14, with the launch of their first interplanetary probe. It is a Japanese rocket which is responsible for carrying out the Hope mission (hope, al-Amal in Arabic) at 22:51 French time from the base of Tanegashima.
If all goes well, this one and a half ton vessel, the size of a car, should arrive in Martian orbit in February 2021. Either largely
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