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The Rocket Lab-built spacecraft for NASA\u2019s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission are encapsulated in the 7 meter payload fairings for Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket. Image: Blue Origin<\/p>\nThe Rocket Lab-built spacecraft for NASA\u2019s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission are encapsulated in the 7 meter payload fairings for Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket. Image: Blue Origin<\/p>\n
Blue Origin\u2019s second New Glenn rocket is scheduled to take flight no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 9, and launch a pair of Mars-bound satellites for NASA along with a communications demonstration payload for Viasat.<\/p>\n
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 targeting liftoff during an 88-minute window that opens at 2:45 p.m. EST (1945 UTC).<\/p>\n
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about two hours prior to liftoff.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 65 percent chance for favorable weather at the opening Sunday\u2019s launch opportunity, but that slides to 55 percent as time goes on. Meteorologists cited concerns with cumulus clouds, lightning and anvil clouds, noting that a cold front will be in place by Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs 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,\u201d launch weather officers wrote. \u201cA few strong to severe thunderstorms may develop Sunday afternoon, with a small chance of a thunderstorm wind gust near 80 fps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like with the first New Glenn launch in January 2025, Blue Origin will attempt to land its first stage booster on its autonomous barge, Jacklyn. The 188-foot-tall (57.4 m) booster named \u2018Never Tell Me the Odds\u2019 will progress from using three to then one BE-4 engine to perform the final landing burn.<\/p>\n
Blue Origin previously said it plans to reuse this booster on its third flight if all goes well with this recovery effort. The company\u2019s CEO, Dave Limp, said in a social media post on Wednesday that all will be well even if they\u2019re unable to recover this booster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got several more New Glenn boosters already in production,\u201d Limp wrote.<\/p>\n
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Blue Origin transported its New Glenn first stage booster, \u2018Never Tell Me the Odds,\u2019 from its facilities at Rocket Park to Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Oct. 8, 2025. Image: John Pisani \/ Spaceflight Now<\/p>\n
The New Glenn 2 (NG-2) mission will be the first time that Blue Origin\u2019s orbital class rocket will carry customer payloads to space. The two ESCAPADE spacecraft \u2014 named \u2018Blue\u2019 and \u2018Gold\u2019 \u2014 were encapsulated inside the rocket\u2019s 23-foot-diameter (7 m) payload fairings on Oct. 31.<\/p>\n
Blue Origin will perform two burns of the BE-3U engines on the rocket\u2019s upper stage before the twin satellites deploy about 33 minutes after liftoff. The Viasat tech demo will activate about five minutes after the second ESCAPADE satellite, Gold, is released.<\/p>\n
The launch was coordinated by NASA\u2019s Launch Services Program, based at the Kennedy Space Center. The rocket was assigned through the agency\u2019s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract.<\/p>\n
The overall contract has a maximum total value of $300 million over a five-year ordering period. 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.<\/p>\n
However, because New Glenn wasn\u2019t ready to fly in time, the mission was moved to the rocket\u2019s second launch.<\/p>\n
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An artist\u2019s rendering of the ESCAPADE mission patch. Graphic: University of California, Berkeley
\nMission to Mars<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s ESCAPADE\u2019s science mission is led by NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of California, Berkeley, Space Science Laboratory. The mission is being done in collaboration with Rocket Lab, Advanced Space, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Northern Arizona University.<\/p>\n
The two spacecraft will work in tandem to better understand Mars\u2019 magnetosphere and learn how its affected by space weather. That give researchers a better grasp on the climatological history of the Red Planet and how it lost its atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally excited to see (NASA\u2019s) Heliophysics\u2019 first mission to Mars and being able to deliver that space weather information that will hopefully help as humanity expands out into the cosmos,\u201d Joseph Westlake, NASA Heliophysics Director, told Spaceflight Now in in an interview earlier this year.<\/p>\n
What began as the Mars Ion and Sputtering Escape Network (MISEN) concept proposal in October 2016 evolved in to ESCAPADE by July 2018. In June 2019, NASA picked it as one of three finalists as part of the agency\u2019s Small, Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration or SIMPLEx for short.<\/p>\n
These types of missions are designed with a higher risk tolerance, a shorter timeline and a lower budget.<\/p>\n
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Rocket Lab built EscaPADE twin spacecraft fully assembled and ready for shipping at the company\u2019s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California, before shipping to the launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Image: Rocket Lab<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had three-and-a-half years to make two satellites to go to Mars. A typical timeline for a Mars mission is a decade,\u201d said Christophe Mandy, during an August 2024 media tour of Rocket Lab\u2019s Long Beach, California, facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig missions, like [Mars Sample Return], MSR started in 2002, so it\u2019s already been over two decades. That\u2019s the normal pace for an interplanetary mission,\u201d Mandy said. \u201cWe had three-and-a-half years for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue and Gold were built on Rocket Lab\u2019s Explorer satellite bus, characterized by the company as a \u201chigh delta-V spacecraft with large propellant tanks, deep space capable avionics, and ranging transponders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Explorer product line has a very, very high mass fraction that is fuel,\u201d Mandy said. \u201cIn the case of ESCAPADE, it\u2019s almost 70 percent, which is an enormous number. So, if you are the type of mission that needs a lot of delta-V, you\u2019ll probably go for Explorer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spacecraft will linger in Earth orbit for about a year before beginning a 10-month cruise to Mars. This altered trajectory, created by Advanced Space, was a result the launch delay of more than a year.<\/p>\n
The Mars orbit insertion burn is anticipated in September 2027 with checkouts and orbit refining to follow. The science mission is scheduled to last from June 2028 until May 2029.<\/p>\n
Long Beach \u27a1\ufe0f Cape Canaveral \u27a1\ufe0f MARS<\/p>\n
Our ESCAPADE spacecraft have already travelled across the country and soon will be on their next \u2013 and much longer \u2013 journey to Mars. Our twin spacecraft have a 43-month mission ahead of them, with 11 months spent studying Mars\u2019\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/GTPK3ah3as<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) November 6, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \t