A pair of EscaPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft have returned to Florida in preparation for their planned launch this autumn. Their mission destination will be Mars.
EscaPADE consists of a pair of identical probes created by Rocket Lab on behalf of NASA. They will have to enter orbit around Mars, after which they will study the structure of its magnetosphere, how it is affected by solar wind, and how this interaction influences the leakage of the planet’s atmosphere.
Initially, the spacecraft were scheduled to be sent to the Red Planet in October 2024 during the debut launch of the New Glenn rocket. However, due to the carrier’s lack of readiness, NASA had to abandon this plan. The decision to cancel was made the day before engineers were scheduled to begin refueling the probes. After that, the spacecraft were returned to Rocket Lab headquarters in California.
The next ballistic window for a flight to Mars will not open until December 2026. However, NASA specialists have developed an alternative plan for launching the spacecraft using a more complex trajectory. It consists of initially placing EscaPADE into orbit around the L2 Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system. The probes will spend about a year there observing space weather. After opening a new window for the flight to Mars, they will perform a gravitational maneuver and leave Earth’s vicinity. The arrival at the Red Planet will take place in September 2027.
On September 16, the pair of EscaPADE probes were once again transported from California to the Astrotech Space Operations Center in Titusville, Florida. In the near future, Rocket Lab engineers will conduct inspections and functional tests of the vehicles in the Astrotech clean room. After that, they will be refueled and integrated into the payload compartment.The new New Glenn rocket will be used to launch EscaPADE. It will be the first mission launched into space. At present, its launch is scheduled for the end of 2025.
