Overview
- Liftoff occurred at 3:55 p.m. local time from Cape Canaveral after multiple delays for terrestrial weather and a strong solar storm coordinated with the FAA.
- The New Glenn first stage landed upright on the sea platform Jacklyn about 600 kilometers offshore, succeeding after a failed recovery on January’s debut flight.
- Blue Origin deployed two identical UC Berkeley–led Escapade spacecraft to study how the solar wind drives atmospheric loss by making coordinated measurements of Mars’ upper atmosphere and magnetosphere.
- The twin probes will first park near the Sun–Earth L2 point, execute an Earth flyby during a late‑2026 transfer opportunity, and are expected to enter Mars orbit in 2027.
- Escapade is part of NASA’s SIMPLEx program with reported costs under roughly $80–$100 million, and the booster recovery marks progress toward reusable operations long led by SpaceX.