NASA has selected New Glenn from Blue Origin, the company’s heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle that has yet to make its first launch, for a science mission to Mars. As Reuters Notes, it is also the company’s first NASA interplanetary contract. The mission is called Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or ESCAPADE, and was designed to study the planet’s magnetosphere using twin spacecraft. NASA is targeting a late-2024 mission launch, which means we won’t have to wait too long to finally see the New Glenn in action — if the Jeff Bezos-owned space corps can avoid further development delays, that is. .
The New Glenn vehicle is the company’s answer to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and other companies’ heavy-lift vehicles. Blue Origin initially aimed for a 2020 date for its first launch, and NASA approved it for future unmanned exploration and science missions that year, but the event was pushed back. It was moved to 2021 and then to 2022. In late March of last year, Jarrett Jones, Blue Origin’s senior vice president for New Glenn, accepted that the vehicle was not going to fly for the first time in 2022 and that the company was in the process of setting a new date.
NASA has awarded Blue Origin the contract for ESCAPADE under the Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR), which was designed to foster the growth of commercial launch services in the US. The agency intends to use launch vehicles from program participants specifically for “small satellites and Class D payloads” that can tolerate increased risk. In other words, VADR contracts are intended for lower cost missions. “Utilizing a lower level of mission assurance and commercial best practices for rocket launch, these highly flexible contracts help expand access to space through lower launch costs,” NASA said in its announcement. of the New Glenn selection.
The ESCAPADE mission will launch from Space Launch Complex-36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission will take about 11 months to reach the red planet. After that, it will take a few more months for the twin spacecraft to reach the ideal orbit for collecting information about the Martian magnetosphere. The data it will provide can help scientists better understand space weather so that safeguards can be put in place to better protect astronauts and satellites in our continued exploration of outer space.
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