Mars moon lander set to launch on 19 October

The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is set to launch into space on a H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center at 04:41 JST on 20 October 2026 (20:41 BST / 21:41 CEST on 19 October 2026). MMX will be the first mission to collect a sample from Mars’s moon Phobos and bring it back to Earth.