International media coverage of Hope mission is out of this world
The arrival of UAE's Mars probe makes headlines from New York to Hong Kong
February 10, 2021
A “history making moment” and “a giant leap for the UAE” were some of the phrases used by the world’s media in their reportage of the successful arrival of the Hope probe into the Martian orbit.
Much was made of the UAE joining an elite club of five countries who have successfully reached the Red Planet.
The Arab world has “truly joined the space race today” reported The Times of London, under the headline “Mars weather satellite is a giant leap for UAE”.
The Arab world has truly joined the space race today
'The Times' of London
The orbiting satellite’s “findings will help to pave the way for future manned voyages”, the paper said.
“History-making UAE probe brakes into Mars orbit” the BBC reported on its website, with the story also prominent on its TV and radio news bulletins.
“Hope is regarded as a triumph for a small gulf nation that dared to think seven years ago that it could inspire the next generation by launching the first Arab interplanetary space mission,” the BBC science correspondent Jonathan Amos said.
News outlets across the US also followed the arrival of Hope, including the New York Times and the news website CNET, which noted that the UAE "put its Al-Amal spacecraft into orbit around Mars ahead of China's and Nasa's arrivals".
Across the world in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reported “a triumph for the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission”, while Russia Today said the UAE was the first Arab nation to “successfully foray into deep space".
Reporting from Dubai, the 24-hour news channel highlighted the average age of the Hope team as 27, and that 80 per cent of the science team were women, calling the mission “a big deal”.
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France’s Le Monde noted that Hope had arrived in time for the 50th anniversary of the UAE. “The space ambitions of the United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich Gulf country, are seen as a reminiscence of the golden age of great cultural and scientific achievements in the Middle East,” it said.
“Die Raumsonde “Hope” ist am Ziel (The space probe "Hope" is there), said Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine, introducing its in-depth coverage of the mission.
For the Netherland’s online newspaper NU, the significance of the mission to what it called the “rode planeet” was “to inspire a new generation of engineers”.
Across the Middle East there were celebrations. The Daily Star in Lebanon called it a “historic flight” and a “triumph for the Arab world, with the English language Saudi-based Arab News proclaiming “Arab world basks in the glory of UAE Mars mission triumph".
Egypt’s Al Ahram reported that the Cairo Tower had been lit up in red, with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi saying Hope represented “a major scientific boom in the Arab region".
Updated: February 10, 2021 06:17 PM
