Blue Origin postponed Sunday’s launch attempt due to poor weather conditions, a cruise ship entering restricted waters near the launch site, and ground system issues. The company now plans to launch on Wednesday, November 12, with a launch window beginning at 2:50 pm EST (19:50 UTC).
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida—Astrodynamics often seems almost magical in its complexity, but trajectory analysts managed to find a solution to save NASA’s ESCAPADE mission from a long delay and potential cancellation after the rocket was not ready for its appointed launch window last year.
ESCAPADE, short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, involves two identical spacecraft heading to Mars as early as Sunday, launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. “ESCAPADE is pursuing a very unusual trajectory to reach Mars,” explained Rob Lillis, the mission's principal investigator from the University of California, Berkeley. “We’re launching outside the traditional Hohmann transfer windows, which appear every 25 or 26 months. We’re employing a flexible mission design where we enter a loiter orbit around Earth, waiting until Earth and Mars are properly positioned in November of next year to proceed to Mars.”
This was not the original mission plan. Initially, ESCAPADE was meant to take a direct route from Earth to Mars, a trip usually lasting six to nine months. Instead, the mission will now launch when Mars is over 220 million miles away on the opposite side of the Solar System.
The payload fairing of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, containing NASA’s twin Mars-bound science probes. Credit: Blue Origin
The last Mars launch window was last year, and the subsequent one won’t arrive until the end of 2026. Despite these obstacles, NASA remains optimistic about the mission’s prospects. The New Glenn rocket, capable of sending much heavier cargo to Mars, is more than adequate for this mission. NASA is tasking it with dispatching about a ton of payload, consisting of two identical science probes intended to study the interaction between Mars’ upper atmosphere and the solar wind.
NASA’s attempt to minimize costs is another factor in its decision. Blue Origin is providing this launch for about $20 million, considerably cheaper than other available options capable of sending ESCAPADE to Mars. In return, NASA accepts a higher risk of launch failure as this is only the second mission for the 321-foot-tall (98-meter) New Glenn rocket, which has not yet received certification from NASA or the US Space Force.