Japan targets Mars moon samples & Florida rideshare launch weather delay - Space News (Oct 19, 2026)

Support The Automated Daily directly: 15 free episodes a day, 5 editions, 3 languages, about $4 a day to produce. A coffee keeps it going: theautomateddaily.com/support Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Invest Like the Pros with StockMVP - https://www.stock-mvp.com/?via=ron - Discover the Future of AI Audio with ElevenLabs - https://try.elevenlabs.io/tad - Lindy is your ultimate AI assistant that proactively manages your inbox - https://try.lindy.ai/tad Today's topics: Japan targets Mars moon samples - Japan’s MMX spacecraft is scheduled to begin a mission to study Phobos and Deimos and return the first sample from the Martian system. Scientists hope Phobos material will reveal how Mars’s moons formed and how water and organic compounds moved through the early solar system. [182] Florida rideshare launch weather delay - Poor weather in the Falcon 9 booster recovery zone forced SpaceX to postpone the Bandwagon-5 rideshare launch until October 20. The mission includes multiple small satellites and another demonstration of the uncrewed Starfall orbital reentry capsule. [46] Public hunts hidden black holes - The Black Hole Hunters citizen-science project is asking volunteers to examine NASA TESS observations for signs of otherwise invisible stellar-mass black holes. Nearly 23,000 participants have already completed more than 12 million classifications. [243] Fast solar wind approaches Earth - A fast stream of solar wind from a coronal hole is expected to reach Earth around October 19 and 20. Forecasters say it could produce a minor geomagnetic storm and strengthen auroras at high latitudes. [226][228] Orionid meteor shower nears peak - The Orionid meteor shower, produced by debris from Halley’s Comet, is approaching its October 21 peak. Moonlight will hide many faint meteors, but darker conditions before dawn may still offer worthwhile viewing. [272] Episode Transcript Japan targets Mars moon samples We begin with Japan’s Martian Moons eXploration mission, better known as MMX. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Tanegashima Space Center later today, riding aboard an H3 rocket on a journey toward Mars. MMX is not going to land on Mars itself. Instead, it will investigate the planet’s two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, with most of its attention focused on Phobos. After arriving in the Martian system next year, the spacecraft is expected to spend an extended period observing the moons and examining their surroundings. It will al