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THE UNITED ARAB Emirates has said it would delay the launch of its “Hope” Mars probe for a second time, again due to bad weather.
The probe was originally due to be launched from Japan on Wednesday but had been postponed until Friday for the same reason.
“After extensive meetings, the @UAESpaceAgency and @MBRSpaceCentre, through discussions with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, announce a further delay of the Mars Hope Probe launch,” Dubai’s media office tweeted.
It cited “unstable weather conditions at the launch site in Tanegashima Island in Japan” and said a new launch date would be announced within 24 hours.
The UAE, made up of seven emirates, is set to be the first Arab nation to send a probe to Mars.
The probe is one of three racing to the red planet, with Chinese and US rockets also taking advantage of the Earth and Mars being unusually close: a mere hop of 55 million kilometres.
وكالة الإمارات للفضاء / Twitter
وكالة الإمارات للفضاء / Twitter / Twitter
“Hope” — Al-Amal in Arabic — is expected to start orbiting Mars by February 2021, marking the 50th anniversary of the unification of the UAE.
Once there, it will loop the planet for a whole Martian year of 687 Earth days.
The goal is to provide a comprehensive image of weather dynamics in the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
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In a word, brilliant.
I really enjoyed that. Love seeing pictures of 1940′s Ireland as that’s the decade my parents were born into and it’s a few second glimpse into that world.
I could watch many hours straight of footage like that from that period, but where would you get it? RTE is one of the oldest continuously operating public service broadcasters in the world but it’s TV station didn’t launch 1962 and so they can;t have anything substantial from that 40′s period I assume?
An awful lot can be found on Pathè and Movietone.
People looked so happy back then.
Before the Celtic Tiger.
Celtic Tiger turned people into ass holes
And Dublin looked great.
I remember my mother wearing a head scarf when we were kids and she was only in her 30′s.
Wonderful memory as Irish people tried to forget WW2 & tried to have some fun with snows!
Any footage from outside Dublin?
Nice article Dan.
Thanks Michael – Happy Christmas!
No problem Dan, Happy Christmas.
I’d much rather live in those times than now.
I’m sure some people reading this remember (like the footage of St Stephen’s Green) the making of slides on Dublin streets great fun for the us kids but not great for cyclists or older people.
Have a great XMas
The speed of that bus in the 2nd clip!!
Lovely movies of simpler times
have your say