Japan's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) Spacecraft Launch | JAXA
🚀The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft aboard H3 Launch Vehicle flight No.10 at 4:41am Japan Standard Time (JST) on October 20, 2026, from the Tanegashima Space Center, on a small island in southwestern Japan.
The H3 Launch Vehicle flew as planned, and approximately 71 minutes and 13 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the MMX spacecraft was confirmed. The MMX spacecraft was then injected into the predetermined orbit.
MMX is a sample return mission to Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons. After arriving at Mars, the spacecraft will study Phobos from orbit, land on the moon to collect samples, and return this material to Earth. MMX will also conduct observations of Mars, and perform close flyby observations of Mars’s smaller moon, Deimos, before departing the Martian system. The mission is expected to last about five years with arrival at Mars roughly one year after launch and sample return to Earth planned for 2031.
MMX will be the first mission to explore the Martian moons and return a sample, and also humanity’s first round-trip from the Mars sphere.
MMX is a Japan-led mission with strong international involvement from the USA (NASA), France (CNES), Germany (DLR), Europe (ESA), and Australia (ASA).
Japan's MMX Mission "aims to reveal the origin of Mars’ moons and shed light on the evolution of Mars, and potentially habitable environments in the early Solar System.
The Martian moons may be captured asteroids, or they may have formed from debris created by a giant impact on Mars. In either case, the examination of Phobos can provide unique clues about the early history of the Martian system. Phobos may consist of material carved out of a younger Mars, when conditions could have been more favorable for life. Alternatively, the moon may be primitive material that was delivered from the outer Solar System to the young terrestrial planets, including water-bearing minerals and organics that might have kick-started the path to life.
Phobos is also thought to be covered with debris knocked from the Martian surface by asteroid impacts. MMX may therefore return the first-ever samples of Mars itself, preserved within the regolith of Phobos. Scattered from across the planet and over millions of years, this sample will be a unique chronographer of Mars’s past."
Image Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Date: Oct. 20, 2026
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