NASA's ESCAPADE twins complete 1st powered Earth flybys toward Mars
NASA's ESCAPADE mission just made history: its twin Mars probes completed a double gravity assist around Earth on November 7 and 9, 2026.
This is the first time NASA has used a powered Earth flyby to send spacecraft toward Mars.
The probes, launched last year on a New Glenn rocket, took this creative route and picked up speed for the long trip ahead.
ESCAPADE probes sample magnetotail with ARTEMIS-THEMIS
With these maneuvers done, the probes are now set to reach Mars in September 2027.
Along their journey, they cruised through Earth's magnetotail (a region shaped by solar wind), grabbing new data and partnering with twin ARTEMIS-THEMIS spacecraft at the moon to observe the structure from four different perspectives simultaneously.
As principal investigator Rob Lillis put it, "We were able to capture the magnetic field structure of that distant tail, how it flaps, how it moves, how the plasma flows within it," and "And not only that, but for the first time, we were able to do that with two spacecraft simultaneously."
Their main goal: unlock more secrets about Mars's magnetic field once they arrive.