Photos: Atlas 5 rocket soars from West Coast

Riding a Japanese rocket, the Arab world’s first interplanetary probe departed planet Earth on Sunday to begin a seven-month journey to Mars on a dual mission of scientific exploration and proving the mettle of the UAE’s growing space program.

Good weather for launching a rocket is forecast for Cape Canaveral and the Space Coast on Thursday morning when a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 is scheduled to take flight.

SpaceX’s second Falcon 9 flight of the year lifted off Jan. 31 from Cape Canaveral with GovSat 1, a U.S.-built satellite funded by SES and the government of Luxembourg to provide secure communications for military and civil defense authorities.