Blue Origin announced Thursday that it is targeting the launch of NASA‘s ESCAPADE mission no earlier than November 9. The first-ever twin-spacecraft mission to Mars will launch atop Blue Origin’s biggest rocket New Glenn from Florida, US, in its second-ever flight and first for NASA.
Short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, ESCAPADE is the first new Mars mission that NASA has built in more than five years. It follows the launch of the Perseverance rover, which took off on July 20, 2020, and it’s currently hunting for signs of past or present life on the red planet’s Jezero crater.
🚀 Launch Alert | We’re targeting New Glenn’s second launch no earlier than Sunday, November 9, from LC-36. NG-2 will send @NASA‘s ESCAPADE twin spacecraft on their journey to Mars and carry a @Viasat technology demonstration for @NASASpaceOps‘ Communications Services Project. pic.twitter.com/6rK6wg9yxJ
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) November 5, 2025
Built at a cost of just $80 million, the mission has been funded by NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program and is managed by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Other partners include Rocket Lab which built the satellites, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Advanced Space LLC and Blue Origin, the launch provider.
ESCAPADE’s purpose
ESCAPADE’s purpose is to study the interaction between the solar wind and the red planet’s hybrid magnetosphere to understand how Mars lost its atmosphere. The popular theory is that somehow the planet’s global magnetosphere weakened between 3.5 and 4 billion years ago, which allowed the Sun and other cosmic objects to bombard it with high-energy particles. This bombardment, combined with strong solar winds, stripped gases from the atmosphere, turning Mars into a barren land with an extremely weak, localised magnetic field.
Magnetospheres are considered essential for a planet’s habitability. According to NASA, Earth’s magnetosphere, which is generated by its molten core and is the strongest of all rocky planets in our solar system, is what makes this planet habitable because it shields us from solar wind and cosmic radiation, preventing erosion of the atmosphere.
This lack of global magnetosphere is what caused Mars to lose its atmosphere and ultimately liquid water. Using ESCAPDE’s data, scientists will study how planets lose habitability and possibly gain insight into what Earth might look like without its magnetosphere.
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ESCAPADE’s journey to Mars
ESCAPADE will take an interesting course to get to Mars. Instead of waiting for the Earth-Mars alignment window in late 2026, the satellites fixated on Rocket Lab’s Photon platform, will first travel 1.5 million km from Earth to enter a ‘libration loitering orbit’ at the second Lagrange Point or L2 where they will stay for a year.
The L2 is a region in space where a spacecraft can remain in a fixed position with minimal fuel usage for extended periods of time. It is the same location where the James Webb Space Telescope is stationed. After leaving the L2 orbit, ESCAPADE will begin its 10-month journey and reach Mars in September 2027.
What will ESCAPADE do?
The two satellites, named Blue and Gold, are fitted with several instruments to observe Mars from their unique dual viewpoint. Initially, both will operate in highly elliptical orbits while in close proximity, and get as close as 160 kilometres from the planet’s surface. The satellites will then take on different orbital planes to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Martian atmosphere.
According to Rocket Lab, they will collect data on the structure, composition, variability, and dynamics of Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere using electrostatic analysers, magnetometers, sensors and cameras with visible and infrared capabilities. The entire mission is expected to last 43 months, including 11 months of data collection by Blue and Gold.
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