Notices by Elizabeth Tasker (elizabethtasker@mastodon.online)

11 days until the launch of MMX 🚀 MMX will launch on the JAXA H3 rocket (flight 10!) with two first-stage main engines and four solid rocket boosters (24L configuration), the MAX POWER set-up to deliver MMX onto the deep space Mars trajectory. Diabolically spooky.

13 days to the launch of the JAXA Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission! 🚀 The spacecraft will visit Phobos and bring back a 🎃… no wait, a 🪨(sample)… containing the 👻 of Mars past.

The station walls at Gare du Nord in Paris are decorated with the equations that help us model climate change.

We are not cackling at a crow. We are cackling at the reflection of a crow. The crow is actually behind us. One window pane is the only barrier against becoming a #NorahNeko cat snack.

ROCK N' ROLL ROCKET QUEENS! 🚀

The launch of the JAXA Martian Moons eXploration (#MMX) mission 🛰️ to Phobos has been scheduled for October 20, 2026 (on MARS DAY ...also known as Tuesday) at 04:41:03 JST. JAXA may announce launches quite late but with serious precision 🤔

JAXA announcement here: https://global.jaxa.jp/press/2026/08/20260820-1_e.html

Weird consequence of the continued Middle East conflict is black & white crisp packets in Japan. Due to a shortage of the petroleum-derived naphtha which is used for coloured inks, big snack company Calbee switched to colourless packs. They were initially hard to spot, but are now overtaking stores.

Night launch of the JAXA H3 rocket from the Tanegashima launch site! The payload is Michibiki No. 7, part of Japan’s new navigation satellite system.

Visited Jonan Pet Cemetery to renew the memorial plate for Cassie. I say this every time, but the pet shrine is wonderful. There’s always offerings from visitors and a gentleman with a bunch of flowers came in as I left, having respectfully given me space. Every time I go, I think good choice!

#CassieCat

HELL YEAH! Torifune is another Itokawa; a contact binary where two asteroids collided gently enough to merge. In the case of Itokawa, the two parts were likely fragments of the same parent asteroid that fragmented during a catastrophic collision, and then gentle bounced back together.

The presentation will be in Japanese, but there's a JAXA press conference at 16:00 JST (~30 minutes) on the flyby of Torifune by Hayabusa2.

SHOW US A SPACE ROCK! And let's hug a 12 year old spacecraft that just pulled off a tight flyby it was never designed to do. Maybe we can save the world 🛰️👀🪨.

https://www.youtube.com/live/ptnVCeR3rqI

Assuming I am understanding Yoshikawa Makoto correctly, I think the model in his hand was our best guess of the shape of Torifune based on light curve data from Earth. It demonstrates how much information even a rapid flyby can provide on the nature of an asteroid.

@michael_w_busch @tanavit This is what you get for providing snacks at conferences 🤨

OK, so Hayabusa2 powers between asteroids using ion engines (a JAXA speciality), but the Martian Moons eXploration (#MMX) mission is going to be using more traditional chemical propulsion 🛰️. In our #MMXTeamQQ, Imade Takane highlights why we made that choice.

The English press release with the first images of asteroid Torifune captured by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft is now live!

(I translated, the ISAS PR lead checked it while practically running from the press conference, and someone at JAXA HQ stayed late enough to upload 😆 HIGH-FIVES ALL AROUND!)

https://global.jaxa.jp/press/2026/07/20260706-3_j.html

At 15:00 JST, the final ΔV (trajectory change) operation was performed from the ground. We are still nominal 🫡

At 12:40 JST, the team confirmed that the onboard trajectory guidance calculation has begun. All is well.

If you'd like to follow the Hayabusa2# flyby of asteroid Torifune today in real time 🛰️🔭, Otsuka Minoru also put together a real-time version of his flyby web app!

He notes that nothing will appear on the screen until a few minutes before the flyby just before 18:30 JST (because... that's a flyby...) but he flips the camera angles to keep us entertained.

https://o-tsuka.net/haya2flybyrealtime/

NOBODY BREATH!

At 17:37 JST on July 5, ground control confirmed that the onboard trajectory guidance had commenced. The spacecraft condition is normal.

OK... HOW CLOSE ARE WE REALLY TALKING FOR THIS ASTEROID FLYBY? 🛰️👀🪨 Today at ~18:30 JST, Hayabusa2 will attempt a flyby exploration of asteroid Torifune. This web app by Otsuka Minoru let's you try the flyby at different distances... including... 0m.

https://o-tsuka.net/haya2flyby/

(WHY WOULD YOU DO 0m?! WHY DO I KEEP CLICKING ON THAT OPTION?!)