NASA and Blue Origin are preparing for the agency’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) identical dual spacecraft mission, which begins on the inaugural launch of the company’s New Glenn rocket. The mission will study the solar wind’s interaction with the magnetosphere on Mars.
As the first multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to Mars, ESCAPADE’s twin orbiters will take simultaneous observations from different locations around the planet and reveal the real-time response to space weather and how the Martian magnetosphere changes over time.
Blue Origin is targeting no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 13, for the launch of New Glenn-1 from Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Media interested in covering ESCAPADE launch activities for both NASA and Blue Origin must apply for media credentials. Media accreditation requests should be submitted online and a copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is also available. Deadlines for accreditation are as follows:
- U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media must apply by 5 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 30.
- International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
The ESCAPADE mission will use two identical spacecraft to investigate how the solar wind interacts with the hybrid magnetosphere on Mars and how this interaction drives the planet’s atmospheric escape. The mission is funded by NASA’s Heliophysics Division and is part of the NASA Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration program. The ESCAPADE mission is led by the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory, and the spacecraft is designed by Rocket Lab. The agency’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, secured the launch service under the VADR (Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract. NASA will post updates on launch preparations for the twin Martian orbiters on the ESCAPADE blog.
Click here to learn more about NASA's ESCAPADE Dual Spacecraft Mission
