Japan Launches Historic MMX Spacecraft to Mars' Moon Phobos

Japan's space agency JAXA launched the $578 million Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft aboard an H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center before dawn on 20 October local time. Officials declared success roughly 71 minutes after liftoff when the five-tonne spacecraft separated as planned from the rocket's upper stage. MMX is now on a roughly 10-month journey to Mars, expected to arrive in August 2027. Once there, it will orbit Phobos — the larger and nearer of Mars' two tiny moons — for about three years. A lander will spend just two hours on the surface, drilling and vacuuming up at least 10 grams of material before returning to the mothership. The spacecraft will also perform a series of flybys of Deimos before leaving Martian space in 2030 and delivering its capsule to Australia in 2031. If successful, MMX will become the first mission to return samples from a Martian moon, potentially resolving a long-standing mystery about whether Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids or debris from an ancient impact. Five space agencies are partners, including NASA, which contributed $87 million and will receive at least 15% of the sample for study at Johnson Space Center.