NASA Official Says Upcoming Mars Mission to Join First New Glenn Launch

Bradley Smith, director of NASA’s Launch Services Office, said a Mars small satellite mission “will very likely” be part of the inaugural flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.

Smith added that he expects the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers mission launch to take place in one year, while his documents and past presentation indicate August 2024, SpaceNews reported.

NASA plans to send a pair of smallsats to study the interaction between solar winds and Mars’ magnetosphere. In February, Blue Origin received a $20 million task order from NASA under the $300 million Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare contract vehicle to provide launch support for ESCAPADE.

Speaking at a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee on Monday, Smith acknowledged that some scheduling risk exists with New Glenn’s flight. He declined to give an estimate on whether the launch would happen on time.

According to Smith, the use of VADR also adds risk as it lacks requirements present in other contracts to ascertain when a flight would occur. 

Smith explained that ESCAPADE is a Class D mission, which means NASA can tolerate greater risk for it.