NASA and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin company are set to launch two spacecraft to Mars.
The twin orbiters will be sent to Mars to study how the Sun interacts with the Martian magnetic field.
Known as ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers), the mission is led by NASA and involves twin spacecraft that will study the solar wind, and how it affects Mars.
Launch of ESCAPADE
The ESCAPADE mission is being launched on behalf of NASA by Blue Origin, the private spaceflight firm headed by Jeff Bezos.
Origin is targeting early November 2025 for the launch of ESCAPADE from Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA.
This will mark the second flight of the company's New Glenn launch vehicle.
On 8 October 2025, Blue Origin rolled the launch vehicle onto the launch pad in anticipation for its future launch.
ESCAPADE science
The Sun's influence is felt across the Solar System.
A stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun, known as the solar wind, interacts with the atmospheres and magnetic fields of planets.
It's what causes aurorae on planets like Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, for example.
The solar wind is also likely responsible for having stripped Mars's atmosphere out into space, turning it from a warm, wet world to the cold, barren planet we see today.
ESCAPADE's mission goals are to provide scientists with more information about how the solar wind interacts with Mars's magnetic field.
The twin spacecraft will make simultaneous observations from different locations around Mars.
These observations, it's hoped, will provide a real-time breakdown of how Mars responds to space weather, and how its magnetosphere changes over time.
It will also enable scientists to study how Mars's magnetic field guides particle flows around the planet, and what controls the flow of energy and matter into and out of the Martian atmosphere.
Ultimately, the science learned by ESCAPADE at Mars could help scientists learn more about how rocky planets lose their atmosphere, what role the Sun plays in these processes, and perhaps even how it affects Earth.
