Japan sent a $578 million spacecraft into space on Monday, beginning a five‑year effort to land on Mars’s largest moon and return samples to Earth. The robotic venture, called Martian Moons eXploration (MMX), lifted off at 3:41 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (4:41 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Tuesday) from the Tanegashima Space Center in the country’s south.
The MMX probe rode atop a 207‑foot (63‑meter) H3 launch vehicle, Japan’s premier rocket. This particular H3 featured an upgraded configuration that included four strap‑on solid boosters, full‑throttle main engines and a longer payload fairing, all designed to meet the requirements of Japan’s heaviest and most ambitious interplanetary mission to date.