Kosmos 2612 reported within 1-2 km of ICEYE X36; MMX flies today at 19:41:03 UTC

MMX — flies today on an H3 from Tanegashima at 19:41:03 UTC Monday, Japan's third sample return attempt and the first aimed at a moon of Mars. It is the mission you have been waiting weeks for, and the one that actually has to leave today or wait. Arrival at Mars is August 2027, Phobos sampling NET December 2028, and the capsule comes down in Australia in 2031. SpacePolicyOnline

Artemis III update — Administrator Jared Isaacman, associate administrator Amit Kshatriya and programme manager Jeremy Parsons brief in person at NASA headquarters on Friday, livestreamed, on where Artemis III and the rest of the lunar programme stand. This is the one date this week that can move your mental model of the Moon programme, because the mission as currently defined only came into being in February. Isaacman said last month that Artemis III was about ninety days behind schedule, and is targeting mid-2027 for the flight, an Earth-orbit test of rendezvous and docking between Orion and test versions of the SpaceX and Blue Origin landers. SpacePolicyOnline

Human Exploration Across the Moon — the National Academies release a NASA-requested study on non-polar landing sites of high scientific value, at a virtual briefing on Wednesday at 17:00 UTC, with pre-registration required. It lands two days before the Artemis III briefing and feeds the live argument about whether the south pole is the right first target at all. Artemis II crew member Victor Glover has argued publicly that a polar first landing is overly risky and an equatorial site, as Apollo used, might suit better; the study predates his remarks. SpacePolicyOnline

Space station spacewalk preview set for Tuesday. NASA briefs on the upcoming station spacewalks from the Johnson Space Center and online on Tuesday at 18:00 UTC. This is where the dates, the tasks and the crew assignments for the last roll-out solar array installs get nailed down, which is what you need before clearing an evening to watch one. The briefing runs at 2:00 pm Eastern from JSC, with an online feed. SpacePolicyOnline

Shenzhou-23 — the three-person crew harvested and stored space-grown rice, ran touch-interaction tests with the station's robot Xiao Hang, and completed in-orbit medical rescue training plus a full-system depressurisation emergency drill simulating a pressure loss aboard the station. Tiangong operations surface in weekly video dribs rather than daily blogs, so this is as close as you get to a station status report from the Chinese side. The experiment aims to grow two successive generations of rice in orbit for the first time, to see how long microgravity exposure affects genetic stability. China in Space

FAA takes public comment on more Blue Origin launches. a virtual public meeting on the FAA's draft environmental assessment for increasing Blue Origin's launch rate from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, running 22:00 to 00:00 UTC. Environmental assessments are the gate a cadence increase actually passes through, and the Starship equivalent is the reason Starbase flight rates are argued over; this is the New Glenn version of that paperwork. The session is held virtually, 6:00 to 8:00 pm Eastern. SpacePolicyOnline

ESA Council — the European Space Agency holds a press briefing in Paris and online after the 350th meeting of its governing Council, at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST). Council sessions are where member states settle the money and the programme direction that later show up as Ariane 6 and ministerial decisions, so it is worth hearing what they say on the way out. The briefing is listed from Paris with an online feed, at 8:00 am Eastern. SpacePolicyOnline