NASA’s two ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft have each successfully completed a powered Earth flyby, using Earth’s gravity in combination with a sustained engine burn to slingshot themselves toward Mars. With these successful maneuvers complete, the twin spacecraft are on target to reach the Red Planet in September 2027.
“This is the first time NASA has used a
powered Earth flyby to propel a spacecraft toward Mars, and we’ve now executed
this maneuver twice, flawlessly, in just two days,” said Asal Naseri, acting
associate flight director for the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in
Washington.
In November 2026, each of NASA’s two ESCAPADE (Escape
and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft executed a powered
flyby of Earth, combining Earth’s gravity with an engine burn, to slingshot
itself toward Mars. The first spacecraft made its closest approach around 5
a.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 7, and the second did so two days later, around 6
a.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 9. In this animation, each spacecraft’s approximately
9-minute trans-Mars injection burn appears as an orange arc along the spacecraft’s
trajectory.
Advanced Space/Matt Bolliger
The two ESCAPADE spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force
Station in Florida on Nov. 13, 2025, when Earth and Mars were on opposite sides
of the Sun. So instead of heading straight for the Red Planet, as most other
Mars missions have done, both spacecraft entered a “loiter” or
“Earth-proximity” orbit. They charted a first-of-its-kind, kidney-bean-shaped
course around a place in space about a million miles from Earth called Lagrange
point 2, which is a gravitational balancing point on the opposite side of Earth
from the Sun. Then they headed back toward Earth to perform this gravitational
slingshot maneuver around our planet once Earth and Mars were favorably
aligned.
The ESCAPADE mission is pioneering a unique path to
get to Mars. After launch in November 2025, the two ESCAPADE spacecraft looped
around the Earth-Sun Lagrange point 2 (L2), in an “Earth-proximity” or “loiter”
orbit that allowed the spacecraft to return to Earth in November 2026 and use
our planet’s gravity to slingshot themselves to Mars.
Advanced Space/Matt Bolliger
“With this loiter orbit and Earth flyby, ESCAPADE is pioneering a new
strategy for getting to Mars,” said Jeff Parker of Advanced Space, lead mission
designer. “This method provides the flexibility to launch almost anytime and
then use Earth’s gravity to get a boost to Mars, rather than waiting every two
years to launch there directly when the planets are aligned.”
The first ESCAPADE spacecraft
completed its close approach to Earth and its approximately 9-minute trans-Mars
injection burn — the engine firing that commits the spacecraft to its path to
Mars — at 5 a.m. EST on Nov. 7, when it was about 1,000 miles above the
planet’s surface. The second spacecraft followed suit two days later,
completing its close approach and engine burn at 6 a.m. EST on Nov. 9, when it
was about 650 miles above the planet’s surface.
In the mission operations center at the University of
California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL), Robert Lillis,
ESCAPADE’s principal investigator (bottom right), awaits a signal after the
first spacecraft performed an engine burn that initiated a powered Earth
gravity assist on Nov. 7, 2026. Also pictured in the foreground (from left to
right) are SSL aerospace engineer Sasha Courtade, SSL mission operations
manager Mark Lewis, and SSL mission operations engineer Brett Bonelli.
Alan Toth/UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory
These powered flybys of Earth set both spacecraft on course for their
10-month cruise to Mars, culminating with their Mars orbit insertion burns
planned for Sept. 7 and Sept. 9, 2027. Once in orbit around Mars, the two
spacecraft will fly in formation to study how a million-mile-per-hour stream of
material flowing from the Sun, known as the solar wind, interacts with the
Martian environment and how that drives atmospheric loss at Mars.
“By better understanding how the
solar wind affects the Martian environment, ESCAPADE’s findings could help us
plan and prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet,” said Michele
Cash, ESCAPADE program scientist at NASA Headquarters.
The twin ESCAPADE spacecraft have
already taken some science observations during their loiter orbit as they flew
multiple times through Earth’s magnetotail, a part of our planet’s magnetic
environment that gets stretched away from Earth, opposite the Sun, by the solar
wind. During the 10-month trip to Mars, the spacecraft also will be able to
study the dynamics of the solar wind between Earth and Mars.
Along the way, the spacecraft will
perform a series of trajectory correction maneuvers to adjust their path and
ensure they are on a precise course to rendezvous with Mars in September 2027.
With ESCAPADE’s trans-Mars injection burns complete,
the two spacecraft (represented by the central, teal arc) are traveling away
from Earth (represented by the inner, blue orbit) and headed toward Mars
(represented by the outer, red orbit).
Advanced Space/Matt Bolliger
When they reach Mars, two days apart, each spacecraft will fire its engine
for about 11 minutes to slow down and enter orbit around the planet. The
spacecraft then will take several months to maneuver into their first science
formation, where they will follow one another in the same orbit to study how
the planet’s environment changes with time and location. Science operations are
expected to begin in June 2028.
Six months later, the two
spacecraft will shift into different orbits, with one traveling farther
from Mars to observe the incoming solar wind and the other staying closer to
the planet to study how Mars responds to the solar wind in real time. That
science campaign is scheduled to last five months.
“This will be the first science
mission to choreograph two orbiters around Mars, and the first time we will be
able to make coordinated observations of the Martian environment from two
different locations simultaneously,” said ESCAPADE’s principal investigator,
Rob Lillis of the University of California, Berkeley.
Funded by NASA’s Heliophysics
Division, ESCAPADE is part of the agency’s SIMPLEx (Small Innovative Missions
for Planetary Exploration) program, which supports missions that explore the
solar system in innovative ways with smaller budgets.
The University of California,
Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory leads the mission with key
partners Rocket Lab; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Maryland; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Advanced Space; and Blue
Origin.
“The ESCAPADE mission continues the scientific legacy of historical Mars missions with a dedicated team driving new innovations for its journey to and at the Red Planet,” said Skyler Kleinschmidt, ESCAPADE program executive at NASA Headquarters.
Vanessa Thomas
Source: NASA’s
ESCAPADE Completes Powered Earth Flybys, Now En Route to Mars - NASA Science
