After the successful orbital insertion of U.A.E.’s Hope, Assistant Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen, tweeted to the U.A.E. team that “your bold endeavor to explore the Red Planet will inspire many others to reach for the stars. We hope to join you at Mars soon with @NASAPersevere.” Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency wrote that U.A.E.’s success, “gracing U.A.E.’s 50th anniversary, is an inspiration to the world. All the best!”
Egypt is one country that is definitely inspired. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi “hailed” the arrival of the Hope probe to Mars, Egypt’s Mena news agency reported. He wrote on his official Twitter account: “I proudly watched the arrival of the Hope probe to Mars, which is an unprecedented step in the field of scientific research, and heralds a scientific renaissance in the Arab region,” and sent greetings to “the sisterly United Arab Emirates, the leadership and the people, and to all its geniuses who planned and designed this experiment in an attempt to create a new reality, despite all the extreme challenges at the present time. The experience will not be the ultimate in exploring new horizons in our big world, as the Arab mind is ambitious and does not know the impossible.”
Egyptian Space Agency head Mohamed el Qousi told an online symposium sponsored by the U.A.E. Space Agency the same day, that Egypt, “with all its expertise in the field of space and satellites, is looking with great admiration and appreciation to the U.A.E. model in making a positive change in the Arab world,” Egypt State Information Service reported. El Qousi called the “U.A.E. an inspiring model for Arabs,” lauding “the noble global scientific goals … achieved for humanity” by its Hope mission. He also reported that Egypt is working on a project to build “35 education satellites for the benefit of students, specialists and engineers to give them the opportunity to learn, perform programming, and control those satellites… as part of Egypt’s quest for scientific and technological expansion in the fields and activities of space.”
The Egyptian report described the subject of the symposium as discussing “prospects for Arab cooperation in the space field, especially in light of Egypt’s great expertise in the field of space and satellites, as well as its highly efficient human resources.” No mention was made of other Arab countries participating, but it is possible that others were involved. After all, the tower building in Dubai was lit up last night at one point with the words: “Arabs to Mars!”