NASA’s twin ESCAPADE Mars probes completed powered flybys of Earth on November 7 and 9, 2026, the agency said. Both are now heading toward Mars, with arrival planned for September 2027.
The mission will study how the Sun strips gas from Mars, according to NASA. Its two spacecraft will track changes from separate places at the same time, helping scientists untangle how the planet loses air.
How ESCAPADE Mars probes used Earth for a boost
UC Berkeley, which operates the mission, said the probes combined Earth’s gravity with engine thrust. Blue fired its engine for more than nine minutes during its November 7 pass. Then Gold completed its own maneuver on November 9.
Berkeley said the pair launched on November 13, 2025, when Earth and Mars were on opposite sides of the Sun. Instead of flying straight to Mars, they spent nearly a year on a looping route near Earth. They returned for the boost once the planets were suitably aligned.
That detour offers a different way to plan a Mars launch, according to Berkeley’s mission team. A spacecraft could launch between the usual transfer windows, wait in space and depart when the geometry is right. The team says this could reduce dependence on direct launch opportunities that come roughly every two years.
Two spacecraft separate time from place
NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars mission plan calls for two ways of flying the probes. First, one will trail the other through the same regions. Comparing those readings should reveal how conditions change between their visits.
Later, one probe will travel farther from Mars to measure the incoming solar wind. The other will stay closer to measure the planet’s response. NASA says this paired view will help connect changes outside Mars with what happens around the planet in real time.
Lost air and the history of water
The solar wind is a thin stream of electrically charged gas from the Sun, NASA explains. Its earlier MAVEN mission found evidence that solar wind and radiation removed much of Mars’ atmosphere. That helps explain the shift from a wetter past to the cold, dry world it became.
NASA points to dry riverbeds and water-formed minerals as evidence of that past. The question is therefore about more than air escaping now: it is also about how a planet loses conditions that once allowed water to flow.
ESCAPADE Mars arrival precedes the science campaign
NASA plans orbit-entry burns for September 7 and 9, 2027. Each probe will fire its engine for about 11 minutes to slow down. Several months of orbit adjustments will follow, with science operations expected to begin in June 2028.
Sources: NASA flyby update, UC Berkeley, NASA mission plan, NASA MAVEN findings
