Blue Origin launches Twin NASA spacecraft to Mars
14th Nov. 2025
Blue Origin attained a major advancement on 13th November, 2025. Its massive New Glenn rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral and carried a pair of NASA spacecraft towards Mars. The launch marked only the second flight of the heavy-lift rocket, which both NASA and Jeff Bezos’s company expect to play a central role in future lunar missions. Moreover, the mission showcased critical progress for Blue Origin’s ambitions in deep-space exploration.
The 321-foot rocket blasted into a clear afternoon sky after days of delays due to intense solar storms and unsettled weather in Florida. But the biggest moment came minutes later when the reusable booster returned safely to a barge about 375 miles offshore. Employees erupted into cheers as the booster touched down, and Bezos celebrated the pinpoint landing from launch control. “Next stop, moon!” staff members shouted as the achievement sank in.
Not long thereafter, the upper stage released NASA’s twin Escapade orbiters that will spend the next year orbiting roughly 1 million miles from Earth. Once Earth and Mars align next fall, the spacecraft will use a gravity assist to begin its journey toward the red planet. Its arrival is thus expected in 2027.
Once in orbit around Mars, the matching probes will chart the planet’s upper atmosphere and magnetosphere. Thus, their measurements may shed light on the transition from a warm, wet world to the dry, dusty, cold one we see today. Rob Lillis, the mission’s principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley, explained prior to launch, “We want to better understand how the solar wind interacts with Mars. Escapade will give us a totally new stereo perspective.”
UC Berkeley managed this $80 million mission, which was initially intended to launch in a window last fall. NASA decided to delay that opportunity because New Glenn was not demonstrated as “ready” at the time. The rocket is named after astronaut John Glenn and is five times larger than Blue Origin’s suborbital vehicle, New Shepard.
The company plans to test its Blue Moon lunar lander on a future New Glenn flight as competition with SpaceX heats up, with the company’s first Artemis missions now on the horizon. NASA wants to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of the decade, highlighting the urgency of having a demonstrably reliable heavy lift rocket for American and international space objectives.
Web Resources on Blue Origin’s Twin Nasa spacecraft
1. Reuters.com: Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket deploys Mars satellites
2. BBC.com: Blue Origin rocket successfully lands booster for first time
3. TheGuardian.com: Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin launches rocket carrying twin Nasa spacecraft to Mars
4. CNN.com: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches landmark Mars mission