Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Yet another wait-a-minute, sweaty palms moment in space.

NASA’s twin Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) – dubbed Blue and Gold — were on schedule this month to perform a “powered” flyby of Earth, combining Earth’s gravity with an engine burn, to individually slingshot toward Mars.

The first spacecraft was on tap to conduct its flyby and engine burn around 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Saturday, Nov. 7. The second probe will do its flyby around 6 a.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 9.

Signal strength

So far, mum’s the word from officialdom.

However, when I last checked, the Deep Space Network’s Deep Space Station-65 in Madrid, Spain appears to be locked into ESCAPADE Gold.

All I know is that NASA will release the news concerning both flybys, most likely on Monday.

So fingers-crossed that all went well.

Planetary position

The Mars-bound ESCAPADE twins were lofted November 13, 2025 by the Blue Origin New Glenn 2 launcher from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

But here’s the kicker.

The dual craft – dubbed Blue and Gold — weren’t placed on your standard operating procedure of a route to reach the Red Planet.

At liftoff last year, Earth and Mars were not in planetary position for a direct trip by the probes. So, the twin ESCAPADE probes were sent into a “loiter” orbit, one that loops around Earth’s Lagrange point 2 (L2), roughly a million miles away, opposite the sun.

Long-haul cruises

For ESCAPADE twins, the next major mission move is this month, when Earth and Mars aligned, the two probes needed to use Earth’s gravity to slingshot toward Mars.

With engines firing, both spacecraft would then embark on a trans-Mars injection.

After completing successful powered flybys of Earth, the two spacecraft would then take a 10-month cruise to Mars, arriving at the Red Planet on Sept. 7 and Sept. 9, 2027, respectively.

Following their long-haul cruises, the twins would be set to carry out Mars orbit insertion maneuvers in September 2027.

Critical insights

The intent of the ESCAPADE mission is analyzing how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic environment and how this interaction drives the planet’s atmospheric escape.

That’s a blustery way to say the mission will provide critical insights into Mars’ climate history and evolution.

The ESCAPADE mission is led by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

Higher risk posture

Rocket Lab, the private space entrepreneurial firm, designed, built, integrated, and tested the ESCAPADE probes at its space systems production complex in Long Beach, California.

ESCAPADE is a product of NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program, an endeavor geared to showcase low-cost science spacecraft.

But to maintain a lower overall cost, SIMPLEx missions have a higher risk posture and lighter requirements for oversight and management notes the space agency.

To date, it has already been a long and winding road to the Red Planet – with more mileage to chalk up.

So again, fingers-crossed for ESCAPADE!