Landmark Mars mission set to launch from Florida is the first big test for Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket

Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Amazon multibillionaire Jeff Bezos, is set to make another attempt to launch its massive New Glenn rocket in a mission that will mark its first major test.

Carrying a pair of satellites destined to make a long, winding journey to Mars, New Glenn is scheduled to take flight from the Cape Canaveral space station during a launch window that runs from 2:57 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. ET on Thursday. Blue Origin is expected to host a live stream of the event approximately 20 minutes before takeoff.

Blue Origin was scheduled to launch a NASA mission, called Escapade, on Sunday, but cloud cover led to the decision to postpone the liftoff. The company then had to work with the Federal Aviation Administration, which recently banned most rocket launches during the day due to the government shutdown, to find a new opportunity to take off.

Then a massive solar storm that festooned the sky with auroras prevented the company from attempting to take off on Wednesday, Blue Origin said in a social media post on X. Space weather surges like the one that occurred this week bring with them waves of radiation and particles that can damage spacecraft.

The launch of Escapade – short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration Dynamics Explorers – will mark New Glenn’s first flight with a customer payload on board. The rocket completed its maiden flight in January, carrying demonstration technology manufactured by Blue Origin in its cargo hold.

As in January, Blue Origin will again attempt to recover New Glenn’s first stage booster, which is the lowest part of the rocket that gives the vehicle its initial power at liftoff, aiming to land it on a shipping barge called Jacklyn.

Much like Blue Origin’s main competitor, SpaceX – which has long been a dominant force in the commercial launch business – Blue Origin rockets are designed to be partially reused to reduce costs.

Blue Origin had hoped to successfully land its first attempt at landing a New Glenn booster during that orbital flight in January, but the engines failed to re-ignite properly, causing the rocket to veer off course.

Not landing the rocket booster doesn’t necessarily affect how companies evaluate the overall success of a mission, because the primary goal of any rocket launch is to get its cargo safely into orbit. But Blue Origin has made it clear that the stages of recovering and returning parts of its rockets to flight are crucial to the company’s business model.

And Blue Origin said it has spent the last 10 months largely focused on developing the New Glenn vehicle in hopes of securing a successful booster landing.

A historic Martian mission

Once in orbit, New Glenn is given one of the most exciting tasks a rocket can be given. The twin Escapade satellites are planned to head toward Lagrange point 2, or L2, a cosmic balance point located about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth.

Lagrange points can be useful for different types of missions because they allow spacecraft to potentially stay in orbit for a very long time while using minimal fuel. The James Webb Space Telescope, for example, is in orbit around L2.

In this case, however, the Escapade satellites will use L2 as a sort of orbital route to linger on while waiting for their destination – Mars – to approach Earth along its orbital path. At the end of 2026, when the next Mars transfer window opens, the satellites will then leave L2, return briefly near Earth and begin their final journey to the Red Planet.

Regardless of when Escapade takes flight, both spacecraft are expected to enter Martian orbit in September 2027.

Only then will Escapade begin its primary scientific mission. Led by the University of California, Berkeley, a team of researchers will study the planet’s atmosphere to assess why Mars began losing its once-dense atmosphere billions of years ago and assess radiation conditions for future explorers.

“Throughout the Escapade mission, the two satellites will take simultaneous measurements of nearly the entire planet’s upper atmosphere and magnetosphere, at altitudes between approximately 100 and 6,200 miles (160 and 10,000 kilometers),” according to a UC Berkeley press release about the mission. “Coordinated, multi-point observations are necessary to…unravel the chain of cause and effect within the system. »

Getaway is part of NASA SIMPLEx – or Small, Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration – program, which aims to incentivize researchers and companies to find ways to use small, inexpensive spacecraft to conduct scientific investigations at prices well below typical prices.

The cost of the mission was estimated at less than $100 million, compared to the $300 million to $600 million for other NASA satellites orbiting Mars.

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