ESCAPADE
ESCAPADE — Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, NASA's pair of identical Mars orbiters, “Blue” and “Gold”. Launched in November 2025 on Blue Origin's first Mars flight, the twins will fly in formation at Mars (arriving ~2027) to make the first simultaneous two-point measurements of how the solar wind strips away the Martian atmosphere.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA
- Launched
- November 13, 2025
- Status
- Active
Trajectory
- Current speed
- 29.5 km/s
- Computed from the cached state vector
- Distance from the Sun
- 1 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 1,668,106 km
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.297 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
ESCAPADE is two spacecraft doing one job. NASA's Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers are a pair of identical, refrigerator-sized orbiters — nicknamed “Blue” and “Gold” after the University of California, Berkeley, which leads the science — built by Rocket Lab under NASA's low-cost SIMPLEx program. They launched together on 13 November 2025 on the first interplanetary flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, whose booster also made its first successful landing that day. Mars lost most of its air to space over billions of years because it has no global magnetic shield, and a single spacecraft can never tell whether a change it sees is happening everywhere or just where it happens to be. Flying in formation, ESCAPADE's twins will take simultaneous readings from two places at once — the first true stereo view of how the solar wind strips a planet's atmosphere. After looping near Earth and a 2026 gravity assist, they are due to reach Mars around 2027.
- 2025ESCAPADE launches on a Blue Origin New Glenn rocketLaunch
The twin orbiters “Blue” and “Gold” lift off on Blue Origin's first interplanetary flight; the booster lands successfully.
- 2026Planned Earth gravity assistMilestone
After a loiter near Earth, the twins are expected to swing past Earth to gain the speed to reach Mars.
Both orbiters are expected to reach Mars and begin the first simultaneous two-point study of its atmosphere's escape.
Images
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