After months of uncertainty, NASA’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission is finally on track for liftoff. The twin Mars probes, which were initially scheduled to launch in October last year, will now embark on their journey aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket no earlier than August 15 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
NASA's ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission consists of two identical probes designed to study Mars' atmosphere and magnetosphere. Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
The mission’s path to the launch pad has been anything but straightforward. Originally slated to fly on the inaugural launch of New Glenn, ESCAPADE was removed from the schedule in September due to concerns about potential delays and rising costs. Those delays became reality when New Glenn’s first flight was pushed back and eventually launched on January 15, successfully carrying a test version of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring spacecraft platform into orbit. While the rocket’s first stage was unable to land as planned, the debut marked a milestone for the company’s partially reusable heavy-lift vehicle.
Now, Blue Origin has confirmed that ESCAPADE will be the primary payload on New Glenn’s second mission (NG-2), which had previously been targeted for late spring. “This will be an exciting mission for New Glenn and Mars exploration,” said Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp on X. “ESCAPADE is not only New Glenn’s first interplanetary mission, it’s also the first multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to study the Martian magnetosphere. And, we hope to land and recover our booster for the first time. Mars, here we come. Thank you to @NASA for riding with us to space.”
The towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket will also carry a technology demonstration payload for satellite communications company Viasat during the flight.
Built by California-based Rocket Lab, the twin ESCAPADE spacecraft—nicknamed Blue and Gold—will be managed by the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory as part of an $80 million NASA mission. The probes are designed to study how Mars’ magnetic field interacts with the solar wind, tracing the flow of energy and charged particles into and out of the planet’s atmosphere. According to NASA, the data will provide critical insights into the planet’s real-time response to space weather and the evolution of its magnetosphere over time.
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