Overview
- Liftoff is targeted for November 9 from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36 with a 2.5-hour window opening at 2:45 p.m. EDT, pending weather and range clearance.
- The mission will ride Blue Origin’s New Glenn on its second operational flight, carrying Rocket Lab–built spacecraft Blue and Gold.
- UC Berkeley leads and will operate the project, with payloads including electrostatic analyzers, magnetometers, a dust and aurora imager, and Embry‑Riddle–designed Langmuir probes.
- The trajectory sends the pair to the Earth–Sun L2 region before an Earth gravity assist in November 2026, targeting Mars orbit insertion in 2027.
- ESCAPADE’s data aim to quantify atmospheric escape, strengthen space‑weather forecasting, and inform communications and navigation for future human missions, with reported total costs ranging from roughly $49 million to $80 million.