ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers)

Summary

Two identical small NASA spacecraft, built by Rocket Lab for the University of California, Berkeley. From two vantage points at the same time, they will study how the solar wind strips away the atmosphere of Mars. They launched on 13 November 2025 on the second flight of New Glenn.

Now as of 3 Nov 2026

For a year the pair waited for the planets to line up, on a looping orbit near the Sun–Earth L2 point. Now they fly past Earth and fire their engines close to perigee (an Oberth-effect trans-Mars injection): Blue on 7 November and Gold on 9 November 2026, at an altitude of about 970–1,770 km (600–1,100 miles), with burns of about nine minutes. Reported times are around 10:00 UTC on 7 November and 11:00 UTC on 9 November; NASA's own blog post also gives a different time, so treat them as provisional (NASA blog, 2 November).

Key dates

1. 13 Nov 2025Launch (New Glenn NG-2)done
2. Jan 2026Trajectory correctionsdone
3. 7 Nov 2026Blue: Earth flyby and burn towards Marsplanned
4. 9 Nov 2026Gold: Earth flyby and burn towards Marsplanned
5. Sep 2027Arrival at Marsplanned

Timeline

1. 2 Nov 2026NASA announces the Earth flyby — NASA
2. 7 Jan 2026Trajectory correction manoeuvre completed — NASA
3. 13 Nov 2025Launch — NASA