ABU DHABI: UAE’s lunar mission Rashid has announced a new launch date for the rover. Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center announced on Twitter that the launch will be at 11.38 am UAE time on the 11th of this month. The launch site will be Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the US. The new target launch date was revealed after SpaceX announced a stand-down from the December 1 launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Rashid rover.
The delay was due to an inspection of the launch vehicle and data review. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was originally set to launch the spacecraft to the moon on November 30. The launch was later postponed to December 1. The mission also includes the world’s first private lander to the Moon, undertaken by Japanese firm iSpace. So far, only the United States, Russia and China have managed to land a robot on the lunar surface.
If successful, the UAE will become the first Arab country in the world to land a spacecraft on the moon after these three countries. The Emirati-built Rashid rover aims to study lunar soil characteristics, petrography (the composition and properties of lunar rocks) and lunar geology. It will also take photos of the Moon’s dust movement, surface plasma conditions, and the lunar regolith (the blanket of surface deposits covering solid rocks). The Rashid rover will help scientists better understand how lunar dust and rocks vary across the moon. It will also provide new data to develop new technologies that can be used to unravel the origins of Earth and our solar system.
English Summary : New launch date announced for UAE’s moon mission