Summary
NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft are scheduled to combine Earth’s gravity with engine burns on Nov. 7 and 9, 2026, to set course for Mars. The mission will study how the solar wind interacts with Mars and contributes to atmospheric loss.
NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft are scheduled to use powered flybys of Earth on Nov. 7 and 9, 2026, to set course for Mars. Each will combine the planet’s gravitational pull with an engine burn lasting about nine minutes. NASA describes the manoeuvre as a first for a Mars-bound spacecraft.
How the powered flyby works
A conventional gravity assist uses a planet’s gravity to redirect a spacecraft and change its speed relative to the Sun. ESCAPADE will also fire its engine near its closest approach to Earth, combining that gravitational manoeuvre with a propulsion boost. This kind of burn near a spacecraft’s closest approach is known as an Oberth manoeuvre: at high speed, an engine burn can produce a larger change in orbital energy for the same change in velocity.
NASA says each burn will increase the spacecraft’s speed by more than 1,000 miles per hour, from about 6.3 miles per second to about 6.7 miles per second. The first engine burn is scheduled to begin at 4:51 a.m. EST on Nov. 7; the second is scheduled for 5:51 a.m. EST on Nov. 9.
The spacecraft will then cruise for about 10 months, with arrivals at Mars scheduled for Sept. 7 and Sept. 9, 2027. NASA plans for them to fly in formation around the planet, making ESCAPADE the first multi-spacecraft mission to do so there.
A route that fits the planets’ timing
ESCAPADE launched in November 2025, when Earth and Mars were on opposite sides of the Sun. Mars launch opportunities that take advantage of the planets’ alignment occur about every 26 months. Instead of heading directly to Mars, the spacecraft followed a looping route around the Earth–Sun Lagrange point 2, then returned towards Earth to use its gravity as the planets came back into alignment.
That route has already provided an additional science opportunity. NASA reports that the spacecraft passed through a distant region of Earth’s magnetotail—the part of Earth’s magnetic environment stretched away from the planet by the solar wind. The agency says no spacecraft had directly explored that region before, and mission scientists plan to share their observations of its activity and structure.
At Mars, ESCAPADE will investigate how the solar wind, a stream of material flowing from the Sun, interacts with the planet and drives atmospheric loss. The mission team expects to assess how accurately the flybys aimed the spacecraft several days after the burns. It plans to use trajectory-correction manoeuvres during the cruise to refine their paths to Mars.