NASA has chosen Blue Origin New Glenn. The Escapade, Acceleration and Plasma Dynamics probes, or ESCAPADE, are designed to study the planet’s magnetosphere using twin spacecraft.
NASA is targeting a late 2024 launch of the mission, which means if Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company can avoid further development delays, we won’t have to wait long to finally see New Glenn in action. let’s see
New Glenn is the company’s answer to the Falcon Heavy and other SpaceX vehicles, and Blue Origin originally targeted a 2020 date for its first launch, with NASA approving future uncrewed science and exploration missions that year — but the event kept getting delayed and happened. It was moved to 2021 and then to 2022.
By the end of March last year, Blue Origin senior vice president Garrett Jones admitted to The New Glenn that the car wouldn’t make its first flight until 2022, and that the company was setting a new date.
NASA has awarded Blue Origin the ESCAPADE contract under the Category-Assigned Acquisition and Share Program (VADR), designed to support the growth of commercial launch services in the United States. Small satellites and Class D payloads that might pose a greater risk.
In other words, VADR contracts are for low-cost missions. “Using a lower level of mission assurance and commercial best practices for rocket launches, these highly flexible contracts help expand access to space through lower launch costs,” NASA said in the new announcement. Glenn’s choice. .
ESCAPADE will launch from Space Launch Complex-36 at Space Force Station Cape Canaveral in Florida, and the mission will take regarding 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 to collect data on the Martian magnetosphere, and the data it provides can help scientists better understand space weather, so that security measures can be implemented. To better protect astronauts and satellites in our continued exploration of outer space.
