Rashid Rover has sent first message: Sheikh Mohammed

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, on Wednesday announced that the Rashid Rover has sent its first message to the space centre in Dubai.

The Rashid Rover blasted off into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday.

The UAE has scripted history with the with the successful launch of the Arab world's first lunar rover Rashid, which could potentially make the country only the fourth in the world to land on the Moon.

The Dubai Ruler took to Twitter and said, “From a distance of 440,000 km, from the surface of the Earth, the explorer Rashid just sent the first message to the space center in Al Khawaneej."

He also informed that all the devices and systems of the explorer are working properly and it has "begun to enter the orbit of the moon in preparation for landing during the coming months."

Referred to as the world’s most compact rover, Rashid is now on a journey of up to 140 days, with a landing window on the surface of the Moon in April 2023.