Blue Origin performed the second launch of New Glenn and sent the ESCAPADE mission to Mars

On November 13, Blue Origin conducted the second launch of the heavy-lift New Glenn carrier rocket from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral, Florida. As part of the mission, the interplanetary probe ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) was launched, created in collaboration with NASA, the University of California, Berkeley, and Rocket Lab.

What we know

The launch took place at 3:55 PM EST (8:55 PM GMT). About three minutes after liftoff, the first stage separated, and the upper stage continued to carry the payload into space. The launch concluded with sending the two ESCAPADE spacecraft on a trajectory to Lagrange point L2, located about 1.5 million km from Earth. In November 2026, the probes are to maneuver toward Mars' orbit, which is expected to be reached in September 2027.

After separating from the second stage, the first stage of the rocket performed a series of maneuvers and landed on the sea platform "Jacklyn," located approximately 600 km in the Atlantic Ocean. The platform is named after the mother of the company's founder, Jeff Bezos.

ESCAPADE will be NASA's first mission to Mars in more than five years. The mission's two vehicles, named Blue and Gold, are equipped with identical scientific instruments designed to study the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere and the impact of solar wind on its loss. The data to be collected is expected to allow for the construction of a three-dimensional model of the space around Mars.

The launch also included a secondary payload – experimental equipment from ViaSat, which will test a new telemetry data transmission system within the NASA Communications Services Project.

The New Glenn rocket is 98 meters tall and can carry up to 50 tons to low Earth orbit. The first stage is designed for reuse for at least 25 flights. The company plans to use this rocket for commercial, government, and research missions, including Amazon's Kuiper Project satellites.

The ESCAPADE mission is designed for 11 months of scientific work after reaching Martian orbit. Its task is to study the processes related to the atmospheric evolution of Mars.

Source: NASA