# Japan launches mission to return samples from Mars moon

https://mins.news/en/item/107219

- CGTN, 2026-10-20 02:28 UTC
- Science
- Original: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-10-20/Japan-launches-mission-to-return-samples-from-Mars-moon-1Ro8ik2XN84/p.html?UTM_Source=cgtn&UTM_Medium=rss&UTM_Campaign=World

> Japan launched an uncrewed spacecraft toward Phobos on an H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center. The mission aims to collect and return samples from the Martian moon for the first time. The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars in August 2027 and bring samples back to Earth in 2031, helping investigate the moons’ origins and the solar system’s early history.

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- [Japan launches unprecedented mission to return samples from Mars’ moon Phobos](https://mins.news/en/item/107275) — euronews, 2026-10-20
- [Japan launches historic mission to return samples from Mars’s moon](https://mins.news/en/item/107276) — Al Jazeera, 2026-10-20
- [Mission launches from Japan to collect a sample from Mars’s moon](https://mins.news/en/video/107035) — BBC News, 2026-10-19
- [Japan launches mission to return samples from Mars moon](https://mins.news/en/item/106852) — Reuters, 2026-10-19