NASA plans to send a pair of EscaPADE probes to Mars as part of the second launch of the New Glenn rocket. This is stated in the draft budget of the aerospace administration for 2026.
The EscaPADE mission is a pair of identical probes built by Rocket Lab on behalf of NASA. They are designed to study the magnetosphere and atmosphere of Mars, as well as how they interact with the solar wind. The instruments were scheduled to be sent to the Red Planet in October 2024 during the debut launch of the New Glenn rocket. But due to the unpreparedness of the carrier, NASA had to abandon this plan. The decision to cancel was made a day before engineers were to begin refueling the probes.
Since then, mission specialists have been working on alternatives for launching the vehicles in 2025 to 2026 using more complex trajectories. The plan is to initially put EscaPADE into orbit around the Lagrangian point L2 of the Sun-Earth system. They would then perform a gravitational maneuver in the vicinity of Earth and travel to Mars. Under this option, the arrival on the Red Planet will take place in 2027.
From a scientific point of view, such a trajectory offers some advantages, allowing unique space weather observations beyond the L2 point up to 3.5 million kilometers from Earth. This region has not been studied since the Wind mission in the 1990s. The downside is that the probes will spend more time than planned in interplanetary space before reaching Mars. But engineers say the longer radiation exposure shouldn’t be a particular problem for EscaPADE.
NASA is going to stick to that plan. The Aerospace Administration’s draft budget states that the expected launch readiness date for EscaPADE is the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025 (that’s July through September). The vehicles are still planned to be sent into space on a New Glenn rocket.
It should be noted that initially, the second launch of New Glenn was to take place in late spring 2025. In total, Blue Origin planned to carry out eight launches of the rocket during the current year. However, it is already clear that this plan will not be realized, and at best, we can talk about one to two missions. Recently, Jarrett Jones, Blue Origin’s senior vice president in charge of the New Glenn program, announced his departure on a one-year leave of absence. This may be related to Jeff Bezos’ dissatisfaction with the progress of the missile program.