{"id":66833,"date":"2026-10-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=3d30a3884de97c21f4f09b5a011d94b9"},"modified":"2026-10-19T21:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:04:03","slug":"japan-launching-bold-sample-return-mission-to-mars-moon-phobos-today-watch-it-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/10\/19\/japan-launching-bold-sample-return-mission-to-mars-moon-phobos-today-watch-it-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Japan launch a bold sample-return mission to Mars moon Phobos today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <p><em><strong>Editor's note: <\/strong><\/em><em>Japan launched its bold MMX sample-return mission to the Mars moon Phobos on Oct. 19) at 3:41 p.m. EDT (1941 GMT). <\/em><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/astronomy\/mars\/japan-launching-bold-sample-return-mission-to-mars-moon-phobos-today-watch-it-live\"><u><strong>Watch a replay of the liftoff and read our launch story here.<\/strong><\/u><\/a><\/p><div class=\"youtube-video\" data-nosnippet ><div class=\"video-aspect-box\"><iframe data-lazy-priority=\"low\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Fn6gzuGa-6c\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><p>Japan will launch an epic mission to Mars today (Oct. 19), and you can watch the action live.<\/p><p>The Martian Moons eXploration (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/astronomy\/mars\/japan-unveils-mars-moon-sample-return-spacecraft-ahead-of-oct-19-launch-photos\"><u>MMX<\/u><\/a>) mission is scheduled to lift off atop an H3 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/29295-rocket-history.html\"><u>rocket<\/u><\/a> from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center today at 3:41 p.m. EDT (1941 GMT; 4:41 a.m. on Oct. 20 local Japan time).<\/p><p>You can watch it live via the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/22672-japan-aerospace-exploration-agency.html\"><u>Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency<\/u><\/a> (JAXA). Coverage will begin at 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT). <\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2396px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.26%;\"><img id=\"4DsFbvWr5WTHjshqesfFqK\" name=\"Screenshot 2026-10-16 at 1.57.21\u202fPM\" alt=\"illustration of a boxy golden spacecraft orbiting mars, with a small asteroid-looking object to the probe's right\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/4DsFbvWr5WTHjshqesfFqK-1920-80.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"2396\" height=\"1348\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">An artist\u2019s concept of JAXA\u2019s MMX spacecraft during its Mars orbit insertion. The Martian moon Phobos, which MMX will explore and sample, is in the background. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: JAXA)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>As its full name suggests, MMX will focus on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/astronomy\/solar-system\/mars\"><u>Mars<\/u><\/a>' two moons, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/20413-phobos-deimos-mars-moons.html\"><u>Phobos and Deimos<\/u><\/a>. They're both tiny compared to Earth's own moon; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/20346-phobos-moon.html\"><u>Phobos<\/u><\/a> is just 14 miles (22 kilometers) wide, and Deimos is even smaller, with a diameter of about 8 miles (13 km).<\/p><p>They're also quite mysterious. While astronomers have a pretty clear understanding of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/19275-moon-formation.html\"><u>our own moon's birth<\/u><\/a> \u2014 it coalesced from material blasted into space when a Mars-sized planet slammed into Earth long ago \u2014 there's no consensus about Phobos and Deimos' origin story.<\/p><p>The duo \"may be the remains of a massive impact on Mars that sent material into orbit around the planet, or they could be ancient <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/51-asteroids-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html\"><u>asteroids<\/u><\/a> that were captured by Mars' gravity billions of years ago,\" Tom Statler, MMX program executive and program scientist at NASA Headquarters, <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/directorates\/smd\/planetary-science-division\/nasa-to-help-unlock-mysteries-of-mars-moons-in-upcoming-mission\/\" ><u>said in an Oct. 15 statement<\/u><\/a>. (NASA is a partner on the mission, providing a scientific instrument, a technology demonstration, communication support and funding for American scientists on the MMX team.)<\/p><p>\"Having the answer will help illuminate that early era when Earth and the other inner planets may have been acquiring much of their water and organic compounds,\" Statler added.<\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/ylxLcVbM.html\" id=\"ylxLcVbM\" title=\"Japan's Martian moons explorer will sport an 8K camera\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>MMX will help provide that answer, if all goes according to plan. <\/p><p>The spacecraft will arrive in the Mars system in August 2027, then slip into orbit around Phobos a month later. It will study that moon and Deimos from a distance for about 18 months, then deploy the French-German <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/missions\/this-little-rover-will-ride-shotgun-on-japans-ambitious-mars-moon-sample-return-mission\"><u>Idefix rover<\/u><\/a> onto Phobos' surface in early 2029.<\/p><p>The 55-pound (25 kilograms) Idefix \"has two main tasks: providing information to prepare for the landing of the main spacecraft to collect samples, and analyzing the composition and texture of Phobos' surface,\" <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/22562-european-space-agency.html\"><u>European Space Agency<\/u><\/a> officials wrote in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Space_Science\/Mars_moon_lander_set_to_launch_on_19_October\" ><u>MMX mission description<\/u><\/a>. <\/p><p>\"The gravity on Phobos is so low that Idefix will only weigh the equivalent of 15 grams [0.5 ounces] on its surface!\" they added.<\/p><p>The MMX mothership's Phobos landing will occur in 2030. The spacecraft will grab at least 10 grams (0.4 ounces) of samples from the moon, then head back toward Earth with this extraterrestrial bounty. MMX's return capsule will land here in 2031, after which scientists around the world will scrutinize the Phobos sample for clues about the history and evolution of Mars and our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/16080-solar-system-planets.html\"><u>solar system<\/u><\/a> more broadly.<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2000px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"q7Rb5iKLJ9yn8qxhRo8L8A\" name=\"1747940058.jpg\" alt=\"a handful of technicians work with a large spacecraft in a cleanroom\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/q7Rb5iKLJ9yn8qxhRo8L8A-1920-80.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Engineers conduct a thermal vacuum test with JAXA's MMX Mars moon sample-return spacecraft. JAXA posted this image on X on May 15, 2025. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: JAXA)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>MMX was originally supposed to launch in 2024, but issues with the H3 rocket prevented it from doing so. Mars and Earth align properly for interplanetary launches just once every 26 months, so MMX had to wait a while for its next chance.<\/p><p>Japan already has an impressive sample-return track record. The country's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/40156-hayabusa.html\"><u>Hayabusa<\/u><\/a> mission brought home pieces of the asteroid Itokawa in 2010, for example, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/40161-hayabusa2.html\"><u>Hayabusa2<\/u><\/a> did the same with material from the space rock Ryugu a decade later.<\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan will launch its audacious MMX sample-return mission to Mars today (Oct. 19), and you can watch the historic action live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[404,437,477],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-mars","category-solar-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66833"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66877,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66833\/revisions\/66877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}