Blue Origin launches new Glenn rocket for NASA Mars mission, booster recovered

By Anjali Sharma

WASHINGTON- U.S. space technology company Blue Origin on Thursday launched its massive reusable New Glenn rocket, sending NASA’s ESCAPADE twin spacecraft bound for Mars.

The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 3:55 p.m. Eastern Time.

Blue Origin confirmed main engine cut-off and stage separation.

The company later confirmed that New Glenn’s second stage and payload continued their journey toward Mars as planned.

During the final descent of the first-stage booster, its three middle BE-4 engines reignited to slow down te vehicle before landing.

The booster successfully touched down on a landing platform stationed several hundred miles downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.

New Glenn returns to its blue origin,” the company said in a post on X.

The launch marked the second flight of the New Glenn rocket and the first time New Glenn’s booster has been successfully recovered.

NASA later confirmed that the ESCAPADE spacecraft had deployed from the rocket’s second stage.

The twin spacecraft will enter a kidney bean-shaped Earth-proximity orbit for roughly a year before performing a trans-Mars injection engine burn in November 2026, according to NASA.

NASA said that the spacecraft will arrive at Mars in September 2027 and be placed in a large capture orbit. Mission teams will then reduce and synchronize the spacecrafts’ orbits in preparation for the science mission, scheduled to begin in spring 2028.

The ESCAPADE mission is the first coordinated multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to the Red Planet.

New Glenn also carried a technology demonstration from U.S. communications company Viasat in support of NASA’s Communications Services Project in addition to the ESCAPADE spacecraft.