By 
January 4th, 2026
Image credit: NASA
“How do you get to Mars when the launch vehicle is not necessarily going to Mars?”
There is a loop de loop space saga underway. It is a celestial long and winding road that may also have consequences for future settlers firmly planted on the Red Planet.
The Mars-bound ESCAPADE twins were lofted November 13 by the Blue Origin New Glenn 2 launcher from Cape Canaveral, Florida. But the dual craft weren’t placed on your standard operating procedure of a route to reach the Red Planet.
The long and winding road to the Red Planet by the twin ESCAPDE spacecraft.
Image credit: Advanced Space
Space loitering, kidney bean paths, gravity assists, hyperbolic orbits and wide-open windows.
Enter the world of Jeffrey Parker, Chief Technology Officer at Advanced Space in Westminster, Colorado, the chief architect behind the ESCAPADE mission’s roundabout road trip to Mars.
Go to my new Space.com story – “Live long and loiter: Why NASA’s ESCAPADE probes will wait a year in space before heading to Mars” – at:
Posted in Space News
