Japan has successfully launched a Mars exploration spacecraft designed to collect samples from one of the planet's moons and return them to Earth.
NHK and other Japanese media reported that the 10th H3 rocket, carrying the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe, lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture at about 4:41 a.m. on the 20th.
The H3 rocket climbed as it separated four solid-fuel boosters and its first stage in sequence, placing MMX on a trajectory toward Mars about one hour and 11 minutes after liftoff.
MMX aims to carry out a sample return mission, collecting sand and other material from Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, and bringing it back to Earth. If successful, it would mark the first time samples have been retrieved from a celestial body in the Martian system and delivered to Earth. The probe is scheduled to arrive near Mars around August next year, survey Phobos for about three years and return to Earth with its samples in 2031.
Phobos measures 20 to 30 kilometers in diameter, less than one-hundredth the size of Earth's moon. Two competing theories explain its origin: that it is an asteroid captured by Mars' gravity as it passed nearby, or that it formed from debris scattered when another body collided with Mars. Because dust blown from Mars has accumulated on the surface of Phobos, a successful mission is expected to help determine how the planet was formed.
The H3 is Japan's next-generation flagship rocket, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. About 55.3 billion yen (approximately 464.1 billion won) was spent on its development. The probe weighed 4,480 kilograms, the heaviest Japanese spacecraft ever launched, and a long fairing was used for the first time as the protective nose cone.
After the failure of its first flight, the H3 succeeded five times in a row before failing again last December. It has strung together successes since launches resumed in June. The 10th flight lifted the rocket's cumulative success rate to 80% from 78%.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and JAXA plan to discuss transferring launch operations to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as well, following the string of successful H3 flights. Mitsubishi Heavy currently handles manufacturing while JAXA is responsible for launches. Shifting launch operations to the private sector is expected to make it easier to win overseas satellite launch contracts and to buy components in bulk.
The ministry believes the transfer could halve launch costs, currently about 10 billion yen (approximately 83.9 billion won) per flight. The Nikkei said that if JAXA concentrates on upgrading the H3's performance and developing reusable rockets while Mitsubishi Heavy takes over launches, Japan could capture part of the satellite launch market that SpaceX cannot absorb on its own.