Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan bin Salman congratulates UAE on Mars Hope Probe

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan bin Salman congratulates UAE on Mars Hope Probe
February 10, 2021, 11:04 am

Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Chairman of the Saudi Space Commission. (Saudi Space Commission)

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Chairman of the Saudi Space Commission, on Tuesday congratulated the United Arab Emirates on Mars “Hope” Probe successfully entering the planet’s orbit, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The UAE made history on Tuesday by becoming the first Arab nation, and the fifth worldwide, to send a probe to Mars.

Officials have lauded the symbolic importance of the mission, which they say will inspire a new generation of Emirati and Arab youth to begin careers in the sciences.

Prince Sultan said the UAE’s ambition “was not born today,” but has been around since the late Sheikh Zayed, the country’s founding father.

“In 1986, when I met Sheikh Zayed, may God have mercy on him, he was talking about space and remembering the smallest details, and he had a great ambition on which he built generations, aspirations and initiatives that contributed to the realization of this dream,” SPA cited the chairman of the Saudi Space Commission as saying.

Prince Sultan affirmed the Kingdom’s support for the efforts of the UAE in the projects and programs it is working on in the field of space.

For his part, the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Dr. Nayef Falah al-Hajraf, congratulated the leadership, government, and people of the UAE on the arrival of the “Hope” Probe to Mars.

Al-Hajraf expressed his happiness and pride in this great achievement, adding that the probe was manufactured by Emirati efforts, SPA reported.