For months, Amal’s journey had been tracked
by the UAE’s state-run media with rapturous
enthusiasm. Landmarks across the UAE,
including Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower on Earth,
glowed red to mark the spacecraft’s anticipated
arrival. Billboards depicting Amal tower
over Dubai’s highways. This year is the 50th
anniversary of the country’s founding, casting
even more attention on Amal.
If all goes as planned, Amal over the next two
months will settle into an exceptionally high,
elliptical orbit of 13,670 miles by 27,340 miles
(22,000 kilometers by 44,000 kilometers), from
which it will survey the planet’s mostly carbon
dioxide atmosphere at all times of day and in
all seasons.
It joins six spacecraft already operating around
Mars: three U.S., two European and one Indian.
Amal had to perform a series of turns and
engine firings to maneuver into orbit, reducing
its speed to 11,200 mph (18,000 kph) from over
75,000 mph (121,000 kph).
The control room full of Emirati engineers held
their breath as Amal disappeared behind Mars’
dark side. Then it re-emerged from the planet’s
shadow, and contact was restored on schedule.
Screens at the space center revealed that Amal
had managed to do what had eluded many
missions over the decades.
“Anything that slightly goes wrong and you lose
the spacecraft,” said Sarah al-Amiri, minister of
state for advanced technology and the chair of
the UAE’s space agency.
The success delivers a tremendous boost to
the UAE’s space ambitions. The country’s first