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Contact with Hope probe reduced as UAE Mars Mission enters cruise phase

Hope Probe is travelling at a cruise speed of 121,000km/hour, but it will reduce its speed to 18,000km/hour as it gets closer to Mars.

Communication with the Hope probe has been reduced to essential operations as the UAE’s Mars Mission begins the cruise phase of its journey to Mars.

In a series of tweets, the UAE Mars Mission team said: “The Hope Probe has now commenced the ‘normal operations’ phase of its cruise, following the successful completion of the commissioning phase in which we have ensured that all onboard systems are operating nominally.”

They added: “As the distance between the Hope probe and Earth increases, we are now reducing communications to essential operations during the cruise phase as we head towards our third Trajectory Control Manoeuvre in November.”

The probe, which will study Mars’ weather conditions, has already cruised more than 126.6 million km since it was launched from Japan on July 20.

Hope Probe is travelling at a cruise speed of 121,000km/hour, but it will automatically reduce its speed to 18,000km/hour as it gets closer to Mars.