A mission called Hope, the Arab region's first attempt to go interplanetary, is on its way to Mars.
Hope blasted off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center atop a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA rocket on Sunday (July 19) at 5:58 p.m. EDT (2158 GMT).
The spacecraft separated from the rocket about an hour after liftoff and was expected to deploy its solar panels to power the seven-month cruise to Mars.