EscaPADE – Spaceflight Now

Blue Origin launches twin Mars probes for NASA as New Glenn makes first landing

November 13, 2025 William Harwood

Blue Origin launched its second heavy-lift New Glenn rocket Thursday, putting two small NASA satellites onto a long, looping course to Mars to learn more about how the sun has slowly blown away the red planet’s once thick atmosphere.

Launch preview: Blue Origin to launch NASA’s ESCAPADE following scrubs from clouds, space weather

November 13, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

Blue Origin was able to secure permission from the Federal Aviation Administration for a daytime launch attempt while the emergency order constraining commercial launches remains in place even after the end of the government shutdown. Liftoff is scheduled during an 88-minute-long window that opens at 2:57 p.m. EST (1957 UTC).

NASA scrubs ESCAPADE launch due to ‘highly elevated solar activity’

November 11, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

Blue Origin was able to secure permission from the Federal Aviation Administration for a daytime launch attempt while the emergency order constraining commercial launches remains in place during the government shutdown. However, the solar storms are forcing Blue Origin and NASA to find a new launch opportunity.

Blue Origin completes New Glenn static fire test, preparing for NASA’s EscaPADE mission launch

October 31, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

Blue Origin lit up a pocket of Florida’s Space Coast Thursday night when it hot fired its New Glenn rocket for an engine test lasting roughly 40 seconds in duration.

Blue Origin transports New Glenn booster to launch site ahead of Mars-bound mission

October 8, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The booster named ‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ will support the launch of NASA’s EscaPADE mission, sending two washing machine-sized satellites on their way to Mars.

Rocket Lab’s Mars-bound twin satellites – Blue and Gold – hit the road ahead of Blue Origin launch

August 16, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The twin spacecraft, named Blue and Gold, left Rocket Lab’s Long Beach facilities on Thursday to begin the trip to Florida. The EscaPADE mission will launch aboard Blue Origin’s first New Glenn rocket.

NASA taps SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch mission to metal asteroid

March 4, 2020 Stephen Clark

NASA has selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch a robotic mission in July 2022 to explore Psyche, a metal-rich asteroid located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The Psyche probe is NASA’s first mission assigned to fly on SpaceX’s heavy-lift launcher.

NASA’s first interplanetary smallsats may struggle to stay under cost caps

August 5, 2019 Stephen Clark

The first set of proposals for a new class of small robotic probes NASA wants to dispatch across the solar system came in with higher cost estimates than agency officials expected, a NASA manager said Sunday.