Space
Japan sends a spacecraft to a moon of Mars
JAXA's MMX lifted off on October 20 and plans to bring material from the moon Phobos back to Earth in 2031.
Japan's space agency, JAXA, has launched a spacecraft that will travel to Mars and visit one of its moons. The spacecraft is called MMX, which is short for Martian Moons eXploration. It lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 4:41 in the morning, Japan time, on October 20, 2026.
MMX was carried into space on the tenth flight of Japan's H3 rocket. JAXA reported that the rocket flew as planned and that MMX separated from it about 71 minutes after liftoff. After that, the spacecraft was placed into its planned orbit.
Word in this story
A small amount of something that is taken so that people can test or study it.
JAXA says that studying samples from Phobos will help to answer this question.