NASA sends twin spacecraft to Mars with a push from Blue Origin

NASA has launched its latest mission to study Mars, with a little push from Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin.

Hitching a ride on a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket, NASA’s pair of Escapade (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecrafts were launched at at 3:55 p.m. ET Thursday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Built by Rocket Lab, the spacecrafts are part of NASA’s first mission led by the University of California, Berkeley. In a frankly adorable post on X, Rocket Lab posted an image of the twins (named Blue and Gold for the school colours of UC Berkeley), confirming ground communications with both spacecrafts — NASA said contact was established by 10:35 p.m. ET.

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Blue Origin CEO Bezos also posted clips on X showing the spacecrafts in orbit, separating from the New Glenn rocket, with Earth far below.

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According to NASA, the spacecraft will be deployed to study how Mars’ environment is impacted by the sun and solar winds, and provide crucial data for preparing human exploration of the red planet.

“Congratulations to Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, UC Berkeley, and all our partners on the successful launch of ESCAPADE. This heliophysics mission will help reveal how Mars became a desert planet, and how solar eruptions affect the Martian surface,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy in a statement.

Mashable science reporter Elisha Sauers describes more details of the Escapade mission, what it could achieve, and how much it cost, writing:

Escapade could set a precedent for how NASA and the commercial space industry approach interplanetary missions in the future. From soup to nuts, Escapade had a budget of $80 million, under NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration program. Rocket Lab built the twin probes in just 3.5 years for $57 million, a relatively cheap price compared to the billions the agency would normally spend. Those costly missions are a product of legacy aerospace contracts based on the cost-plus-fixed-fee model, which allowed the builders to run over budget without picking up the tab.

If you want to watch the New Glenn rocket take NASA’s Escapades into the sky, you can watch Blue Origin’s stream below (the launch sits around the one hour, 40-minute mark):

For a much more detailed analysis of the Escapade mission, Mashable’s got you covered. And if you’re looking for a way to mark the occasion, there’s really only one song: