Spaceflight Daily Report, Monday 19th October 2026

Render of MMX and Phobos. Image credit: JAXA.

Launch of Martian Moons eXploration (MMX)

JAXA launched an H3-24L rocket from Tanegashima in Japan at 1941 UTC, or 0441 Tuesday morning local time (JST). This was carrying the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, a sample return mission to Phobos. It is JAXA's third sample return mission after Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, both of which returned samples from asteroids. MMX carries instruments developed by various space agencies, as well as a small French-German rover named Idefix which will make Phobos the smallest body so far visited by a wheeled vehicle. In 2027, MMX is expected to enter orbit around Mars, collect samples and deposit the rover on Phobos, and also fly by Deimos. The spacecraft is then planning to depart Mars in 2030 and return a capsule containing the samples to Earth in 2031. This was the 10th flight of the H3, and the first flight of the 24L configuration. [Source: JAXA]

International Space Station Activities

Pyotr Dubrov (MS-29, Roscosmos) carried out plasma research. Anna Kikina (MS-29, Roscosmos) organised food supplies and hardware. Jessica Watkins (Crew-13, NASA) serviced science hardware and set up a bio-printing experiment. Luke Delaney (Crew-13, NASA) tested new onboard equipment for analysing crew biological samples for medical insights without having to ship them back to Earth. Anil Menon (MS-29, NASA) and Joshua Kutryk (Crew-13, CSA) prepared for the first of their two upcoming spacewalks by beginning to clean and prepare their spacesuits. Sergey Teteryatnikov (Crew-13, Roscosmos) carried out AI research. [Source: NASA]

Other notes

• The Bandwagon-5 Falcon 9 rideshare mission has been delayed until tomorrow due to poor weather conditions. [Source: SpaceX]
• The Russian spacecraft Kosmos 2612 appears to have backed off from the Ukrainian-operated satellite ICEYE-X36 after a series of close encounters over the past two days. [Source: Jonathan McDowell]
• Debris discovered in a field in Minnesota suggests that LandSpace botched the de-orbit burn of a Zhuque 2 second stage launched on 15th September and accidentally dropped it on the United States. [Source: Ars Technica]
• Uzbekistan have become the 77th country to join the Artemis Accords. [Source: US Department of State]
• The launch of Starlink Group 15-18 aboard a Falcon 9 has been scheduled for no earlier than 28th October. [Source: SpaceX]
• The launch of Starlink Group 15-21 aboard a Falcon 9 has been scheduled for no earlier than 10th November. [Source: SpaceX]