Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket to fly on interplanetary mission
Blue Origin is set for its first-ever interplanetary mission: on September 29, 2025, the New Glenn rocket will launch NASA's ESCAPADE twin probes to Mars.
This marks a big step for Jeff Bezos's space company.
ESCAPADE will study solar wind's effect on Mars's magnetosphere
ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) sends two Rocket Lab-built spacecraft to study how solar wind affects Mars's magnetosphere.
The $80 million project, managed by NASA and UC Berkeley, aims to help scientists understand how energy and matter move around Mars—key for future exploration.
New Glenn's maiden flight and upcoming launch
New Glenn had its debut flight at the beginning of 2025 but didn't recover its first stage as planned.
ESCAPADE was supposed to fly then but got bumped to this second mission for safety.
This time around, New Glenn will also carry a Viasat tech demo supporting NASA's space networking—and Blue Origin hopes to stick the landing of that massive first stage on a drone ship off the Florida coast.