Overview
- New Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral and completed its second flight by deploying NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft toward a Mars-bound trajectory.
- The first-stage booster separated and touched down on the sea-based platform Jacklyn, marking New Glenn’s first successful recovery after a failed landing on January’s debut.
- ESCAPADE, a low-cost NASA SIMPLEx mission managed by UC Berkeley and built by Rocket Lab, was released about half an hour after liftoff to begin a yearlong loiter near Earth–Sun L2.
- Mission planners expect an Earth gravity assist in late 2026 with arrival at Mars in 2027, where the two probes will study how solar wind drives atmospheric loss.
- The launch followed days of delays from local weather and a severe geomagnetic storm flagged by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center; a Viasat communications demo remains attached to the upper stage.