The two ESCAPADE spacecraft are planned for launch in 2024 to low Earth orbit aboard a Blue Origin New Glenn launch vehicle provided by NASA.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn contracts include a launch agreement with NASA for the ESCAPADE Mars smallsat mission, which project officials have planned for August 2024.
Blue Origin aims for a 2024 first launch of its New Glenn rocket, which is contracted to launch NASA's ESCAPADE mission to Mars.
One of Blue Origin’s contracted New Glenn launches for Project Kuiper would carry NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars smallsat mission, currently scheduled to launch in August 2024.
NASA placed a cost cap of $55,000,000 per mission for missions selected through that round of the SIMPLEx program, which included Janus, the ESCAPADE Mars mission, and Lunar Trailblazer.
Rocket Lab achieved programmatic milestones for two Photon spacecraft to support NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars.
ESCAPADE is one of the first missions to use NASA’s VADR contract after Rocket Lab was selected for two Electron launches of Earth science cubesats in November 2022.
Rob Lillis has had 15 meetings with Blue Origin since NASA selected New Glenn to launch ESCAPADE.
NASA selected Blue Origin on 2023-02-09 to launch the agency’s two ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft to Mars in 2024.
NASA selected ESCAPADE in 2019 as one of three missions in its Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program.
NASA currently has no other robotic Mars missions in development other than ESCAPADE, a smallsat mission scheduled to launch in late 2024.
Blue Origin holds a NASA award dated 2023-02-09, to launch the ESCAPADE Mars smallsat mission on New Glenn, scheduled for late 2024.
NASA selected three SIMPLEx missions for development in 2019—Janus, Lunar Trailblazer, and EscaPADE—each with a $55,000,000 cost cap.
EscaPADE redesigned its mission to use Photon satellite buses from Rocket Lab and could launch as soon as 2024.
NASA awarded Blue Origin, LLC of Kent, Washington a task order to provide launch service for the agency’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission as part of the Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract.
ESCAPADE will launch on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket from Space Launch Complex-36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Rocket Lab announced in 2021 that it would develop redesigned versions of the ESCAPADE spacecraft for launch in 2024, and the mission passed a review that year to proceed into full-scale development.
NASA selected Blue Origin’s New Glenn to launch the two ESCAPADE spacecraft on 2024-02-09.
NASA selected ESCAPADE in 2019 as one of three missions in the Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program, cost-capped at $55,000,000 each.
The New Glenn rocket will launch ESCAPADE in late 2024 with the spacecraft entering orbit around 2023-03-11 months later.