The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled launch its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission today, 19 October 2026 at 20:41 BST / 21:41 CEST, and you can watch the launch live online.
The MMX mission is setting out on a journey to orbit Mars in 2027 and attempt something no other space mission has ever achieved: returning a sample of one of the planet's moons back to Earth.
MMX will target Phobos, one of Mars’s two moons, but also undertake a series of flybys of Mars's other moon, Deimos.
The MMX spacecraft will deploy a four-legged rover armed with a drill onto Phobos before the main craft attempts a touchdown on the moon.
The goal is to collect at least 10g of surface material and, after visiting Deimos, a return module will carry the Phobos samples back to Earth, landing in Woomera, South Australia in 2031.
You can watch the launch live via JAXA's livestream below.
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