Japan's MMX spacecraft is on its way to Mars's moon Phobos

28 October 2026

The Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft, MMX, lifted off on 20 October 2026 at 04:41 Japan Standard Time on a JAXA H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center. The mission is led by Japan's space agency JAXA in collaboration with NASA, France's CNES, Germany's DLR and the European Space Agency, and is due to reach Mars next summer. MMX is to study the two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos. It will be the first spacecraft to orbit Phobos, the first to collect samples from its surface and the first to return to Earth from the Mars system. ESA supplied the spacecraft's deep space communication equipment and provides ground station support through its Estrack network, and European scientists appointed by ESA sit on the mission science team.