Two Mars-bound smallsats that will fly on the highly anticipated debut of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket have arrived at their launch site in Florida.
The satellite duo, known as ESCAPADE (“Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers”), are set to launch atop New Glenn no earlier than Oct. 13 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. They’ll arrive in Mars orbit in September 2025, on a NASA mission to study how incoming charged particles from the sun interact with and alter the planet’s magnetic environment.
The two coordinated robotic explorers could paint a more detailed picture of how Mars’ interaction with the solar wind influences the leaking of the planet’s thin atmosphere, and how its climate evolved over time to lose what scientists think was once a plentiful reserve of liquid water on the surface.
On Aug. 18, the twin ESCAPADE spacecraft arrived at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Florida, to prepare for launch. At the facility, which is owned by Lockheed Martin, teams will check various aspects of the satellites in a dedicated cleanroom, including their electrical circuits and potential leaks in their tanks before carrying out the final assembly.
The spacecraft will be fueled next month, NASA said in a recent statement.
Related: New Glenn: Blue Origin’s big new reusable rocket
“The successful delivery of the spacecraft marks a significant milestone and the culmination of over three years of dedicated teamwork from individuals across the project,” ESCAPADE Principal Investigator Rob Lillis, of the University of California, Berkeley, said in the NASA statement. “Now, we’re thrilled to embark on this first step of our journey to Mars!”
The two small satellites were built by California-based Rocket Lab and UC Berkeley, which is leading the mission and has dubbed the satellites “Blue” and “Gold” after the school’s traditional colors. Each probe weighs under 198 pounds (90 kilograms) and carries three science instruments. The total cost for the mission is less than $80 million, according to the mission website.
The value of the launch contract that NASA signed with Blue Origin is $20 million, SpaceNews reported.
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