Phobos Sample Bid, Contested Orbital Maneuvers and Starship Reuse Test — October 24, 2026

This week’s recap follows a Phobos sample-return launch, risky satellite maneuvers and Starship ambitions. Japan launching bold sample-return mission to Mars moon Phobos today: Watch it live — Space.com Russian satellite stalked ICEYE spacecraft in potentially dangerous on-orbit maneuvers — Breaking Defense SpaceX to attempt Starship catch on next flight, with eye on rapid cadence increase — Ars Technica Chapters 00:00 Today's headlines 00:33 Japan's MMX Phobos sample-return mission 02:01 Cosmos 2612 maneuvers near ICEYE-X36 03:53 SpaceX plans Starship tower catches Source links science.nasa.gov Space Stakes is an AI-voiced podcast, built and run by a real person. Nothing in this episode is financial advice. Follow Space Stakes: subscribe on YouTube · Apple Podcasts · Spotify More from Brian Lampert: Quickly Quantum , the daily quantum computing briefing, and Concrete Compute , the daily AI infrastructure briefing. Transcripts and every episode: space-stakes.kngoworld.chatgpt.site .