![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/MMX-JAXA-on-NASA-300x237.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
MMX will arrive at Mars<\/a> in August 2027, collect the samples from Phobos no earlier than December 2028, and return them to Earth in 2031, landing in Australia. Among the 13 scientific instruments<\/a> are two provided by NASA: the MEGANE spectroscopy instrument from the JHU Applied Physics Lab to study Phobos from above, and the Pneumatic collection mechanism (P-Sampler) from Honeybee Robotics, part of Blue Origin, to collect surface samples after MMX lands. MMX will be on the surface for 2.5 hours while JAXA\u2019s Core sampler (C-sampler) drills down 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) for deeper samples, the CNES\/DLR rover Idefix is deployed, and other studies are made. NASA and ESA are providing deep space communications support. JAXA will livestream<\/a> the launch starting at 2:45 pm EDT tomorrow and you can also follow along on X at @JAXA_EN, @ISAS_JAXA_EN, and @mmx_jaxa_en.<\/p>\n At the end of the week, on Friday, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman along with Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya and Artemis Program Manager Jeremy Parsons will give an update on the next Artemis mission, Artemis III, and other aspects of the program to return American astronauts to the lunar surface. Isaacman has been targeting mid-2027 for Artemis III, an earth-orbiting mission to test rendezvous and docking between the Orion spacecraft and test versions of the SpaceX and Blue Origin lunar landers.<\/p>\n Isaacman indicated<\/a> last month that Artemis III was about 90 days behind schedule. Ordinarily a delay like that isn\u2019t a surprise or much of a problem in the space business, especially since Artemis III in its current form didn\u2019t even exist until February<\/a>, but NASA is intent on landing astronauts on the Moon in 2028, so any delay is a problem. We\u2019ll see what the situation is on Friday, bearing in mind that safety of the crew on this flight and those that follow is paramount. The briefing is in-person at NASA HQ and will be livestreamed (check NASA Live<\/a> for links).<\/p>\n Lots of other events in-between, too many to cover here so we\u2019ll highlight just two.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will release their report on Human Exploration Across the Moon, the result of a request by NASA to look at \u201cKey Non-Polar Destinations Across the Moon to Address Decadal-level Science Objectives with Human Explorers.\u201d There are those, including Artemis II crew member Victor Glover, who argue that landing at the South Pole is overly risky as a first attempt more than 50 years after the last time we were on the Moon and a site nearer the equatorial regions, where the Apollo missions landed, might be a better initial choice. This is a sister study<\/a> to one about human exploration of Mars and began a year before Artemis II lifted off, so there\u2019s no tie to Glover\u2019s remarks, but it does identify non-polar locations of high scientific value that can benefit by having astronauts take a look, not just robots. The committee is co-chaired by James Day, professor of geosciences at UC San Diego, and Purdue\u2019s Dan Dumbacher (former NASA Deputy AA for Human Exploration and Operations and former Executive Director of AIAA). The briefing is virtual. Pre-registration is required.<\/p>\n The report release takes place in tandem with the fall meeting of the Academies\u2019 Space Studies Board at the\u00a0 Beckman Center in Irvine, CA on Tuesday and Wednesday. Several top NASA leaders will be there including James Kenyon (AA for Research & Technology), Kelvin Manning (Deputy AA for Human Spaceflight), and Jake Bleacher (Chief Exploration Scientist for Human Exploration) on Tuesday, and Nicky Fox (AA for Science) on Wednesday. Other experts on the agenda include Dan Baker (Director of LASP at the University of Colorado), Bhavya Lal (RAND School of Public Policy and former NASA AA for Technology, Strategy, and Policy), Casey Dreier (The Planetary Society), Orlando Figueroa (Orlando Leadership Enterprise, who held many top science positions at NASA over several decades), and Jim Green (former NASA Chief Scientist). Looks very interesting. Open sessions will be livestreamed (note the agenda is in PACIFIC time \u2014 add three for Eastern).<\/p>\n Finally, as we mentioned at the top, we\u2019re following with great interest a story from Axios<\/a> citing LeoLabs, and posts on X by expert amateur satellite trackers Jonathan McDowell in the UK (@planet4589) and Marco Longbroek in The Netherlands (@Marco_Longbroek), about Russia\u2019s Kosmos 2612 \u201cstalking\u201d ICEYE X36 and coming within 1-2 kilometers of it. McDowell said he\u2019s \u201cstill waiting for further tracking data to confirm this, but this seems an unprecedented step by Russia if correct.\u201d<\/p>\n ICEYE is a Finnish company that builds SAR satellites, which can see through clouds and smoke and provide imagery day and night. ICEYE X36 is operated by its American subsidiary, ICEYE US, and registered as a U.S. satellite. Some reports indicate it\u2019s being used to support Ukraine. Concerns similarly were raised by the U.S. Space Force about several Russian military satellites, including Kosmos 2612, that maneuvered \u201cclose to a Western commercial radar satellite used by Ukraine for imagery intelligence,\u201d apparently ICEYE X36, in May<\/a>. Clayton Swope at CSIS<\/a> has a useful summary of both events and others before them. We\u2019ll see what develops in coming days.<\/p>\n Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.\u00a0 Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar<\/a> or changes to these.<\/p>\n Monday, October 19<\/p>\n Monday-Tuesday, October 19-20<\/p>\n Tuesday, October 20<\/p>\n Tuesday-Wednesday, October 20-21<\/p>\n Tuesday-Thursday, October 20-22<\/p>\n Wednesday, October 21<\/p>\n Wednesday-Friday, October 21-23<\/p>\n Thursday, October 22<\/p>\n ESA Briefing Following the 350th ESA Council Meeting,<\/a> Paris, FR\/online, 8:00 am ET (14:00 CEST) Thursday-Saturday, October 22-24<\/p>\n Friday, October 23<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLast Updated: Oct 18, 2026 6:06 pm ET\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com\u2019s list of space policy events for the week of October 18-24, 2026 and any insight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66,321359],"class_list":["post-938270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-which-nasa-astronaut-said-it-would-be-better-for-astronauts-to-land-near-the-equator-than-at-the-moon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Artemis-3-crew-Robt-Markowitz.webp-300x198.jpg\")
NASA will give an update on the status of the Artemis III mission on Friday. Artemis III crew, L-R: Andre Douglas (NASA), Luca Parmitano (ESA), Randy Bresnik (NASA), Frank Rubio (NASA). Credit: NASA.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ICEYE-Netherlands-MOD-Wikimedia-300x169.jpg\")
ICEYE SAR satellite. Credit<\/a>: Ministry of Defence of the Netherlands (CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n
\nLockheed Martin Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results,<\/a> virtual, 8:30 am ET
\n2026 Faga Forum on Space Intelligence<\/a> (Space Foundation), Chantilly, VA (classified)
\nNASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel<\/a> (ASAP), telephone, 1:30-3:00 pm ET
\nPublic Meeting on FAA Draft EA To Increase Blue Origin Launches at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL<\/a>, virtual, 6:00-8:00 pm ET<\/p>\n