Blue Origin to launch NASA’s Mars-bound ESCAPADE mission – Spaceflight Now

Blue Origin’s second New Glenn rocket is scheduled to take flight no sooner than Sunday, Nov. 9, and launch a pair of Mars-bound satellites for NASA together with a communications demonstration payload for Viasat.

The 321-foot-tall (98 m) rocket will fly on a south-easterly trajectory upon leaving Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin is concentrating on liftoff throughout an 88-minute window that opens at 2:45 p.m. EST (1945 UTC).

Spaceflight Now may have dwell protection starting about two hours previous to liftoff.

The forty fifth Weather Squadron forecast a 65 % likelihood for favorable climate on the opening Sunday’s launch alternative, however that slides to 55 % as time goes on. Meteorologists cited considerations with cumulus clouds, lightning and anvil clouds, noting {that a} chilly entrance will likely be in place by Sunday.

“As the front approaches the region from the northwest, there will be enough moisture in place for showers to form out ahead of and along the front,” launch climate officers wrote. “A few strong to severe thunderstorms may develop Sunday afternoon, with a small chance of a thunderstorm wind gust near 80 fps.”

Like with the primary New Glenn launch in January 2025, Blue Origin will try and land its first stage booster on its autonomous barge, Jacklyn. The 188-foot-tall (57.4 m) booster named ‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ will progress from utilizing three to then one BE-4 engine to carry out the ultimate touchdown burn.

Blue Origin beforehand stated it plans to reuse this booster on its third flight if all goes effectively with this restoration effort. The firm’s CEO, Dave Limp, stated in a social media submit on Wednesday that each one will likely be effectively even when they’re unable to get better this booster.

“We’ve got several more New Glenn boosters already in production,” Limp wrote.

The New Glenn 2 (NG-2) mission would be the first time that Blue Origin’s orbital class rocket will carry buyer payloads to area. The two ESCAPADE spacecraft — named ‘Blue’ and ‘Gold’ — had been encapsulated contained in the rocket’s 23-foot-diameter (7 m) payload fairings on Oct. 31.

Blue Origin will carry out two burns of the BE-3U engines on the rocket’s higher stage earlier than the dual satellites deploy about 33 minutes after liftoff. The Viasat tech demo will activate about 5 minutes after the second ESCAPADE satellite tv for pc, Gold, is launched.

The launch was coordinated by NASA’s Launch Services Program, primarily based on the Kennedy Space Center. The rocket was assigned by the company’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch companies contract.

The general contract has a most complete worth of $300 million over a five-year ordering interval. When it was assigned to Blue Origin with its New Glenn rocket, the ESCAPADE mission was scheduled to launch in late 2024 on the inaugural flight of the rocket.

However, as a result of New Glenn wasn’t able to fly in time, the mission was moved to the rocket’s second launch.

Mission to Mars

NASA’s ESCAPADE’s science mission is led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of California, Berkeley, Space Science Laboratory. The mission is being finished in collaboration with Rocket Lab, Advanced Space, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Northern Arizona University.

The two spacecraft will work in tandem to higher perceive Mars’ magnetosphere and learn the way its affected by area climate. That give researchers a greater grasp on the climatological historical past of the Red Planet and the way it misplaced its ambiance.

“Really excited to see (NASA’s) Heliophysics’ first mission to Mars and being able to deliver that space weather information that will hopefully help as humanity expands out into the cosmos,” Joseph Westlake, NASA Heliophysics Director, instructed Spaceflight Now in in an interview earlier this yr.

What started because the Mars Ion and Sputtering Escape Network (MISEN) idea proposal in October 2016 developed in to ESCAPADE by July 2018. In June 2019, NASA picked it as one in every of three finalists as a part of the company’s Small, Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration or SIMPLEx for brief.

These varieties of missions are designed with a better threat tolerance, a shorter timeline and a decrease price range.

“We had three-and-a-half years to make two satellites to go to Mars. A typical timeline for a Mars mission is a decade,” stated Christophe Mandy, throughout an August 2024 media tour of Rocket Lab’s Long Beach, California, amenities.

“Big missions, like [Mars Sample Return], MSR started in 2002, so it’s already been over two decades. That’s the normal pace for an interplanetary mission,” Mandy stated. “We had three-and-a-half years for everything.”

Blue and Gold had been constructed on Rocket Lab’s Explorer satellite tv for pc bus, characterised by the corporate as a “high delta-V spacecraft with large propellant tanks, deep space capable avionics, and ranging transponders.”

“The Explorer product line has a very, very high mass fraction that is fuel,” Mandy stated. “In the case of ESCAPADE, it’s almost 70 percent, which is an enormous number. So, if you are the type of mission that needs a lot of delta-V, you’ll probably go for Explorer.”

The spacecraft will linger in Earth orbit for a few yr earlier than starting a 10-month cruise to Mars. This altered trajectory, created by Advanced Space, was a end result the launch delay of greater than a yr.

The Mars orbit insertion burn is anticipated in September 2027 with checkouts and orbit refining to comply with. The science mission is scheduled to final from June 2028 till May 2029.

Long Beach ➡️ Cape Canaveral ➡️ MARS

Our ESCAPADE spacecraft have already travelled throughout the nation and shortly will likely be on their subsequent – and for much longer – journey to Mars. Our twin spacecraft have a 43-month mission forward of them, with 11 months spent finding out Mars’… pic.twitter.com/GTPK3ah3as

— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) November 6, 2025