The United Arab Emirates launched a probe on Monday that will orbit Mars once it reaches the Red Planet. But the race to watch is between the United States and China, which has worked furiously to try and match Washington's supremacy in space. "China joining (the Mars race) will change the situation dominated by the US for half a century," said Chen Lan, an independent analyst at GoTaikonauts.com, which specialises in China's space programme. China has upgraded its monitoring stations in the far-western Xinjiang region and northeastern Heilongjiang province to meet the Mars mission requirements, state news agency Xinhua reported last week. China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft is expected to launch for Mars aboard a Long March 5 rocketFactfile on China's aim to reach Mars with an orbiter, a lander and a rover.

Source: Daily Nation July 23, 2020 00:45 UTC