Emirates Mars Mission: Hope probe lines up historic Mars manoeuvre e

History beckons for the United Arab Emirates as it seeks on Tuesday to place a probe around Mars.The Hope spacecraft, launched from Earth seven months ago, is about to reach the decisive moment in its long journey - orbit insertion.Currently moving at over 120,000km/h (75,000mph), it must fire its braking engines for 27 minutes to be sure of being captured by the planet's gravity.Success would enable Hope to begin its mission to study Mars' climate."We're entering a very critical phase," said project director, Omran Sharaf. "It's a phase that basically defines whether we reach Mars, or not; and whether we'll be able to conduct our science, or not."If we go too slow, we crash on Mars; if we go too fast, we skip Mars," he told BBC News.Hope is the first of three missions to arrive at the Red Planet this month. On Wednesday, the Chinese Tianwen-1 orbiter will also try to make it into orbit, while the Americans turn up on the 18th with another big rover.