The United Arab Emirates made history Tuesday, 9 February as they became the first Arab nation and only the second nation in history to succeed in placing a spacecraft into Martian orbit on their very first attempt.
The Al-Amal probe, which translates to “Hope” in English, began its 27-minute Mars Orbit Insertion burn at 15:30 UTC, (10:30 Eastern time in the United States). The burn placed the craft into an initial 40-hour, 1,000 x 49,380 km capture orbit of the Red Planet.