NASA's ESCAPADE mission to Mars launching today: Here's all we know
NASA's ESCAPADE mission is taking off on November 10, 2025, with two spacecraft—Blue and Gold—hitching a ride on Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral.
This team-up with UC Berkeley and Rocket Lab aims to find out why Mars lost its atmosphere and what's happening in its magnetosphere.
Why are we sending 2 spacecraft to Mars?
ESCAPADE is NASA's first Mars mission under its Heliophysics division—and the first time they're sending twin orbiters to study the Red Planet together.
By flying in sync, Blue and Gold will collect high-res data about Mars's magnetic fields and how its atmosphere escapes into space.
Scientists hope this will help us piece together how Mars went from possibly habitable to the dry world we see today.
What's on board the spacecraft?
Each orbiter carries three instruments: one maps magnetic fields, another measures charged particles, and a third tracks plasma density.
The New Glenn rocket isn't just carrying ESCAPADE—it'll launch multiple payloads, then try for a reusable booster landing at sea (weather permitting).