Edition 9.15 of the Rocket Report arrives with a spotlight on Japan’s upcoming Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission. The MMX spacecraft, a flagship science flight for this year, is slated to lift off as early as Monday (U.S. time) aboard a Japanese H3 launch vehicle. Its itinerary includes flybys of Phobos and Deimos, the two small moons orbiting Mars, where it will deploy a rover and gather samples that are planned to return to Earth by 2031 – a classic example of planetary exploration.
The newsletter continues to invite reader contributions and encourages new subscribers to sign up using the form below (the form does not appear on AMP‑enabled pages). Each issue provides updates on small, medium and heavy‑lift rockets, plus a brief preview of the next three scheduled launches.
In other news, California‑based Reflect Orbital is turning to India for launch services. The startup, which is developing on‑demand sunlight using mirrors placed in space, announced on Wednesday that it has booked two missions with Indian launch provider Skyroot Aerospace, according to Payload Space. One mission will ride Skyroot’s Vikram‑1 rocket, the first privately built Indian vehicle to reach orbit in July. The second will use the upgraded Vikram‑1U version.