Blue Origin has managed to deploy what will be the first mission launched to Mars in more than five years. It’s a major step toward a future invasion of the Red Planet that is piquing the interest of Donald Trump and business tycoons like Elon Musk. After successive delays, the two ships comprising this mission were taken out They are already in space on a nearly two-year journey to the planet.
Through this mission, NASA aims to study how the Sun affects the magnetic environment of Mars. The ultimate goal is to prepare for future human explorations on the Red Planet, for which learning more about its inhospitable landscape is essential.
Solar activity was specifically to blame for the final delay the mission suffered before it could finally lift off. In addition to leaving the bright northern lights behind, the solar storm that struck Earth put the missile systems at risk. Finally, the ESCAPADE (Escape for Explorers, Acceleration and Plasma Dynamics) spacecraft. It was launched toward Mars at 9:55 p.m. Spanish time Peninsula on Thursday, November 13, aboard a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket.
“This heliophysics mission will help reveal how Mars became a desert planet and how solar flares affect the surface of Mars,” said Sean Duffy, NASA’s acting administrator.
“Understanding Martian space weather is a critical priority for future missions, because it helps us protect systems, Robots, and above all, humans, in extreme environments“. said Nikki Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Heading to Mars
After the spacecraft deployed, ESCAPADE mission ground controllers established communications with the two spacecraft at 10:35 p.m. EST. Instead of heading directly to Mars, the two spacecraft will first head to a point in space a million miles from Earth called the Lagrange 2 point.
Currently, Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the sun, making travel between the two planets difficult. In November 2026, when the orbits of Earth and Mars are closely aligned, the ESCAPADE spacecraft will return to Earth and They will use Earth’s gravity to propel themselves toward Mars.
The two spacecraft, built by Rocket Lab, will investigate how the constant stream of particles from the Sun, moving at millions of kilometers per hour (known as the solar wind), gradually eroded much of Mars’ atmosphere, causing the planet to cool and water on its surface to evaporate.
Missile recovery
The second stage of the rocket continued its advance to carry ESCAPADE into space, while the first stage of the New Glenn rocket A series of deceleration maneuvers were initiated to attempt to land aboard Blue Origin’s Jacqueline rescue ship.Which was waiting about 604 kilometers away in the Atlantic Ocean.
Blue Origin attempted a similar landing during the first launch of New Glenn in January this year, but it was unsuccessful. On this occasion, seven minutes after liftoff, as the New Glenn rocket passed through the Earth’s atmosphere, it reactivated three of its seven BE-4 engines. Two minutes later, it made an automated landing, landing vertically on top of Jacqueline, which is named after the mother of company founder Jeff Bezos.
Blue Origin becomes the second company in history to recover a rocket during an operational flight. A common practice is SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company, which Jeff Bezos wants to compete with as a supplier to NASA and other private ventures.
New Glenn also conducted a demonstration of satellite communications technology from Viasat Inc. This technology could be used in a successor system to NASA’s previous Telemetry and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRS).
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