AP
Japan Mars Moons
An H3 rocket lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2026.
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A Japanese spacecraft is rocketing toward Mars on a quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring back samples. Japan launched it before dawn Tuesday from the country's main spaceport. Five of the world's space agencies have joined forces for the five-year mission that will attempt to land a robotic prospector plus a rover on Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons. While NASA and China have successfully landed spacecraft on Mars, no one has ever reached Phobos or its sidekick Deimos and no one has managed to fetch samples. If successful, Martian lunar soil and small rocks will arrive at Earth in 2031.
