Rocket Lab<\/strong>, a leading launch and space systems company, announced its two Explorer-class spacecraft for NASA and the University of California Berkeley\u2019s Space Sciences Laboratory have been successfully launched, beginning their journey to Mars to study the Red Planet\u2019s magnetosphere. NASA\u2019s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission was launched by Blue Origin on November 13, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 03:55 p.m. EST. <\/p>\nRocket Lab has successfully established contact with the spacecraft and they are generating power. Now in orbit, the spacecraft will undergo commissioning by Rocket Lab\u2019s spacecraft operations team in the coming days, beginning with early checkouts including orientation stabilization and solar array deployment, followed by commissioning of flight computers, multiple antenna, guidance and navigation sensors and actuators, and the propulsion system leading up to the mission\u2019s first maneuvers.<\/p>\n
Rocket Lab\u2019s Explorer-class spacecraft platform is a high delta-V, interplanetary member of its advanced satellite family. From contract award to launch, ESCAPADE moved from design to spacecraft completion in just three and a half years \u2013 an aggressive timeline for a Mars mission. This was made possible by the Company\u2019s vertically integrated supply chain, which brings the production of solar arrays, reaction wheels, propellant tanks, star trackers, radios, avionics, flight software, and more entirely in-house. <\/p>\n
\u201cMars missions have historically been measured in decades and come with price tags in the billions or hundreds of millions. With this mission we\u2019re bringing Mars closer, proving real interplanetary science can be done faster and more cost-effectively to unlock the solar system,\u201d said Sir Peter Beck<\/strong>, Founder and CEO of Rocket Lab<\/strong>. \u201cESCAPADE is a major first, not just for Rocket Lab, but for commercial interplanetary science. It\u2019s the result of bold goals from NASA and UC Berkeley, enabled by our end-to-end spacecraft capabilities. We\u2019re proud to play a part in this mission and even prouder to know they\u2019re continuing our legacy at the Red Planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Also Read: Rocket Lab Mars-Bound Spacecraft Reach Florida for Upcoming Launch<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Rob Lillis<\/strong>, ESCAPADE Principal Investigator and Associate Director for Planetary Science at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory<\/strong>, says: “As PI, I’m very grateful to have a top-notch joint ops team at UC Berkeley and Rocket Lab taking care of the twin spacecraft out there in space. I’m both elated and relieved to see NASA\u2019s ESCAPADE spacecraft healthy post-launch and looking forward to the next chapter of their journey to help us understand Mars’ dynamic space weather environment.” Now in orbit, a complex and extended journey begins for Blue and Gold, with trajectory design led by Advanced Space LLC.<\/p>\nThe alignment between Earth and Mars does not currently allow ESCAPADE to use a traditional direct-to-Mars transfer. Instead, ESCAPADE will launch into a \u201cloiter\u201d (or \u201cEarth-proximity\u201d) orbit that loops around Earth\u2019s Lagrange point 2 (about a million miles from Earth, opposite the Sun) until the next planetary alignment window. Once the planets have reached the ideal alignment in fall 2026, the ESCAPADE spacecraft will use an Earth gravity assist to begin the journey to Mars.<\/p>\n
Throughout the mission, Rocket Lab and UC Berkeley spacecraft operators will command the spacecraft to conduct deep-space maneuvers, known as trajectory correction maneuvers (TCMs). The TCMs will boost the spacecraft\u2019s energy to reach Mars and provide navigation control to target their unique orbit insertion corridors. The spacecraft are scheduled to arrive at Mars in September 2027. The spacecraft will begin to transition to their first science formation in 2028. ESCAPADE will allow scientists to understand how the solar wind strips ions from Mars\u2019 atmosphere, offering insight into the planet\u2019s atmospheric escape history and space weather environment, and informing future human exploration strategies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rocket Lab, a leading launch and space systems company, announced its two Explorer-class spacecraft for NASA and the University of California Berkeley\u2019s Space Sciences Laboratory have been successfully launched, beginning their journey to Mars to study the Red Planet\u2019s magnetosphere. NASA\u2019s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission was launched by Blue Origin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26,25,20],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ground","tag-launch","tag-satellite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Rocket](\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1763457326183_638990541293120333.png\")
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