Japan's audacious sample-return mission to the Mars moon Phobos has made it to the launch pad

Japan's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft has arrived at the Tanegashima spaceport ahead of launch, which will kick off an audacious mission to bag samples from Mars' moon Phobos and deliver them to Earth. MMX recently completed its journey to the spaceport on Tanegashima island on March 31, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced recently on the social media platform X, and will now be prepared for a launch late this year. …