Japan launched an uncrewed spacecraft toward the Martian moon Phobos on Tuesday on a mission intended to become the first to collect samples from the small rocky body and return them to Earth for analysis.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft lifted off aboard an H3 rocket before dawn from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan. Earlier reporting noted: Japan successfully launches probe in historic Mars moon mission Japanese scientists successfully launched a spacecraft Tuesday (October 20, 2026) that aims to be the first to retrieve samples from one of Mars’s moons, potentially helping unlock the origins of the Solar System and life on Earth. Earlier reporting noted: The flagship H3 rocket carrying the unmanned Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe blasted off into a pitch black sky from the Tanegashima Space Center at 4:41 a.m. (1941 GMT Monday), according to a live stream broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Earlier reporting noted: Also Read: Phobos imaged by Hubble Space telescope
The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars in August 2027 and return samples to Earth in 2031. Phobos has an irregular shape with dimensions of about 27 km by 22 km by 18 km (17 miles by 14 miles by 11 miles), and orbits roughly 6,000 km (3,700 miles) above the Martian surface. JAXA hopes the mission will shed light on the origin of the two moons of Mars and deepen the understanding of our solar system’s early stages. Phobos, the larger of the two Martian moons, orbits the planet three times a day.
