Overview
- Liftoff from Cape Canaveral is targeted for Sunday, Nov. 9, during a window opening at 2:45 p.m. ET, with the latest forecast showing about a 65% chance of acceptable weather at the start.
- This will be New Glenn’s second flight and its first carrying interplanetary science payloads, deploying two ESCAPADE satellites and a Viasat communications tech demo.
- Blue Origin plans to attempt a barge landing of the first stage booster “Never Tell Me the Odds,” while the upper stage performs two BE‑3U burns before spacecraft separation roughly 33 minutes after launch.
- ESCAPADE’s twin craft will first loiter for about a year near the Sun–Earth L2 point, then use an Earth gravity assist in November 2026 to reach Mars for an expected orbital arrival in 2027 and coordinated science operations beginning in 2028.
- Led by UC Berkeley with spacecraft built by Rocket Lab under NASA’s SIMPLEx program, the low‑cost mission (~$80 million) will map Mars’ magnetic fields, ionosphere and upper atmosphere, as Blue Origin coordinates with the FAA to proceed during the government shutdown and observers frame the flight as a key test for the company.