Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: Blue Origin

The Blue Origin New Glenn orbital launch vehicle successfully completed its second mission on November 13.

Successfully deployed was the NASA Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) twin-spacecraft into their designated “loiter orbit.”

In addition to deploying the NASA spacecraft, the Viasat HaloNet demonstration onboard New Glenn’s second stage successfully executed the first flight test of Viasat’s telemetry data relay service for NASA’s Communications Services Project. 

Blue Origin also successfully landed the fully reusable first stage on the Jacklyn drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Image credit: Blue Origin

Perfect odds

“We achieved full mission success today,” said Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin. “It turns out ‘Never Tell Me The Odds’ had perfect odds—never before in history has a booster this large nailed the landing on the second try. This is just the beginning as we rapidly scale our flight cadence and continue delivering for our customers.”

Image credit: Blue Origin

According to a Blue Origin statement, New Glenn is “underpins our efforts to establish sustained human presence on the Moon, harness in-space resources, provide multi-mission, multi-orbit mobility through Blue Ring, and establish destinations in low Earth orbit.”

Loiter orbit

That loiter orbit used by the ESCAPADE twins for Mars comes courtesy of Advanced Space, a Westminster, Colorado group that provides mission design, trajectory optimization, maneuver design, and future navigation operations.

Image credit: NASA

“Once the planets have reached the ideal alignment in fall 2026, the ESCAPADE spacecraft will use an Earth gravity assist to loop around Earth and begin the journey to Mars,” noted an Advanced Space statement. “ESCAPADE represents a new era of interplanetary exploration — one that is faster, more agile, and highly collaborative,” said Bradley Cheetham, CEO of Advanced Space.

The dual spacecraft will arrive at the Red Planet in September 2027.

A stylized illustration shows the twin ESCAPADE spacecraft entering Mars’ orbit Image credit: James Rattray/Rocket Lab USA

Mars duties

ESCAPADE represents a first-of-its-kind formation of two satellites, built by Rocket Lab.

The two satellites will be sent into Martian orbit to conduct coordinated, multipoint observations aimed at unraveling the complex interplay between space weather and Mars’ unique “hybrid” magnetosphere.

By examining how solar wind interactions drive atmospheric loss, ESCAPADE will provide insight into Mars’ climate history and evolution.

The ESCAPADE mission is led by the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory for NASA.