German Aerospace Center, DLR

20/10/2026

🚀 Godspeed, Idefix®!

Our Idefix® rover lifted off with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission from the Tanegashima Space Center on 19 October 2026 at 21:41 CEST, on board a powerful H3 rocket. The rover was developed, and will be operated, together with our colleagues at the French space agency CNES.

MMX will study Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and bring a sample from Phobos back to Earth in 2031. Its findings could help answer a long-standing question: are the Martian moons captured asteroids, debris from a giant Martian impact or leftovers from Mars’ formation?

Idefix® is due to land on Phobos around the turn of 2028/2029, set to become the first human-made object ever to set wheel on Mars’ larger moon. After landing, the rover will autonomously right itself and face the Sun. It will explore the surface for 100 days and help characterise the ground, operated from control centres at DLR in Cologne and CNES in Toulouse. Its findings will help the main MMX spacecraft land and take its samples.

Congratulations to everyone at JAXA, CNES and DLR who made this possible. Next stop: Martian orbit! 🔴

20/10/2026

On the way to the Martian system! 🚀

MMX successfully launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on 19 October at 21:41 CEST. The DLR/CNES Idefix® rover is now on its way to explore the Martian moon Phobos and characterise its ground, helping the main MMX spacecraft land and take its samples.

MMX is set to reach Mars in the second half of 2027 and begin mapping Phobos and Deimos. Around the turn of 2028/2029, it is expected to release Idefix® from 40 to 100 metres above Phobos. The rover will right itself autonomously and spend 100 days scouting the surface. 🕵️

The mothership will then land, take the first samples from Phobos and bring them back to Earth in 2031. They could help answer a long-standing question: how did the Martian moons form? 🔴

Congratulations to all the teams involved!

19/10/2026

🎥 We're LIVE! Join us to watch JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)'s MMX mission and Idefix® launch to Phobos: https://www.youtube.com/live/Fn6gzuGa-6c

🚀 Liftoff is planned for 21:41 CEST.

19/10/2026

Phobos, we'll soon be on our way 🥔😨

Tonight, our Idefix® rover sets off on its journey to Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons. Named after the Greek god of fear, it is a strange place: at only 22 kilometres across on average, its surface area wouldn't even cover Berlin twice. With gravity less than one thousandth of Earth's, no spacecraft has ever landed there. (Two have tried - but failed).

Idefix® will be the first. It will touch down ahead of the MMX main spacecraft, scout the surface and help prepare the way for MMX to land and collect samples.

Why go at all? Researchers still don’t know how Mars' moons formed. Are they captured asteroids, debris from a giant impact on Mars, or leftover material from when the Red Planet formed? Samples from Phobos should help answer that question and more. 🔴

Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

19/10/2026

The day has come! MMX and Idefix are ready for launch 🚀

JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to lift off tonight at 21:41 CEST on board an H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. Onboard is the German-French rover Idefix®, developed by DLR and CNES.

Their destination: Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons. 🥔🪨 Idefix® will be the first rover to ever drive on a Martian moon, scouting the ground ahead of the mothership landing. MMX will also be the first sample return mission from the Mars system.

🎥 Watch the launch live from 20:45 CEST: https://www.youtube.com/live/Fn6gzuGa-6c

13/10/2026

Bon voyage, Idefix®! 🚀
Our team has a few last words for the little rover before it heads to the Martian moon Phobos aboard JAXA(宇宙航空研究開発機構)'s MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission.

Featuring:
🚀 Christian Krause, team lead
🚀 Mona Plettenberg, MMX rover operations and science communication
🚀 Henrik Muders, MMX rover operations engineer
🚀 Kagan Kayal, MMX rover operations engineer
🚀 Hendrik-Joachim Peetz, risk manager
🚀 Felix Constantin Passenberg, software engineer

Special guest: Bert, one of our four-legged walking robots from the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics. Bert is designed to test energy-efficient walking and robotic exploration of other worlds.

Launch is planned for 19 October at 21:41 CEST from Tanegashima, Japan.

Go boldly, Idefix®!

13/10/2026

Sometimes all it takes is an otherworldly doctor.

In space, a doctor’s appointment is not a one-off consultation, but a trusting relationship built up over many months. Being a space doctor is a round-the-clock responsibility. Bimba Hoyer, Flight Surgeon, has monitored Sophie Adenot’s health closely for the past 8 months, acting as her medical link between Earth and space. Now back on Earth, Adenot has been accompanied by Bimba back to Cologne, for the special space rehabilitation programme.

Microgravity affects the human body on various fronts:

👁️ Vision health – fluid shifts flatten the eyeball and swell the optic nerve, causing lasting vision changes

‍🤸‍♀️ Coordination and mobility – important muscles, such as in the back, are barely used in microgravity, and astronauts often experience impaired upper-body movement after landing

🩸Blood pressure and distribution – in weightlessness, the cardiovascular system weakens, since it is not stimulated by movements like standing up

The programme focuses on readapting the astronaut to Earth’s conditions, considering these aspects and more. And so, Adenot’s εpsilon mission is now concluding after a safe return, with Bimba ensuring that over these next few weeks the French ESA astronaut reconnects with Earth, physically and mentally.

12/10/2026

Who looks after an astronaut's health in space? 🩺🚀
Meet Bimba Hoyer, flight surgeon with DLR and ESA - European Space Agency. Throughout ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot's εpsilon mission on the International Space Station, Bimba was her mission doctor. She watched over her work schedule, made sure she could exercise when it suited her best and held weekly video calls, plus calls at any time if a medical issue came up.

The most critical moments came during Sophie's three spacewalks (EVAs, or extravehicular activities), when only her spacesuit separated her from the vacuum of space. 👨‍🚀 For those, Bimba flew to Houston (USA) to support her live from NASA's Mission Control. 🛰️

🌍 Now Sophie is back on Earth, and Bimba is by her side again as she readjusts to gravity at :envihab, our aerospace medicine research facility in Cologne. 🏠

07/10/2026

That's exactly what we’ve done. 🚀 Swipe to follow the mission, from building the payload to getting it back.

On 1 October, our sounding rocket MAPHEUS-17 lifted off from Esrange in northern Sweden. For around seven minutes, a whole payload of experiments floated in microgravity – from alloys solidifying in tiny furnaces to a miniature microscope for studying cells.

MAPHEUS usually flies every year, so researchers can fly an experiment, improve it and fly it again. Standardised modules make it quick and affordable to get on board, and this time early-career researchers were part of it too, including school students and 'Jugend hackt' participants.

And there was a first, in collaboration with : a few minutes after lift-off, our Falcon 20E research aircraft went on the trail of the rocket's exhaust plume to test how rocket emissions can be measured in the atmosphere.

Want to know more? You can read about it here:
https://www.dlr.de/en/research-and-transfer/projects-and-missions/mapheus

02/10/2026

Itching to work on some artwork? Join 's with daily art challenges to do with MMX and Idefix now through launch day, 19 October!

Follow along with us, CNES and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) all month for inspiration as we get ready for the spacecraft and rover to set off on their journey to Mars and Phobos.

🎨🚀 **À vos créations : le est lancé !**

Vous connaissez l’Inktober ? Le principe : un jour, un thème, une création.

À l’approche du lancement de la mission MMX, on vous propose notre version spatiale du défi : 19 jours, 19 thèmes inspirés de la mission pour laisser parler votre créativité du décollage à Phobos en passant par Mars, les rovers ou encore les échantillons. 🔴🛰️

Dessin, peinture, collage, photo, création numérique, modelage… tous les formats sont les bienvenus ! ✏️🖌️📸

👉 Découvrez les 19 thèmes dans le carrousel et participez à ceux qui vous inspirent.
👉 Partagez vos créations avec et pensez à taguer le CNES : nous en repartagerons certaines sur nos réseaux ! 👀

Et rendez-vous le 19 octobre pour le dernier thème… et le décollage de MMX à bord de H3. 🚀🇯🇵

Alors, qu’est-ce que la mission MMX vous inspire ?

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) German Aerospace Center, DLR