NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft swing past Earth and head for Mars

NASA's two ESCAPADE spacecraft are finally on their way to Mars. Each one flew close past Earth this month and fired its engine at the right moment, using our planet's gravity plus a roughly nine-minute burn to set course for the Red Planet.

The first spacecraft made its closest approach around 5 a.m. EST on Saturday, November 7, 2026, passing about 1,000 miles above Earth. The second followed around 6 a.m. EST on Monday, November 9, at about 650 miles. NASA says it is the first time it has used a powered Earth flyby to send a spacecraft to Mars.

An unusual route

ESCAPADE launched on November 13, 2025, at a time when Earth and Mars were on opposite sides of the Sun, far from the usual launch window. Rather than heading out directly, the two probes waited in a loose orbit near the Lagrange point L2, about a million miles from Earth. During that year they passed through Earth's magnetic tail several times and collected some early science data. Lead mission designer Jeff Parker of Advanced Space said the approach gives "the flexibility to launch almost anytime."

Why two spacecraft

Mars lost most of its early atmosphere, and the solar wind, the stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun, is thought to be a big reason. ESCAPADE will measure how that wind strips gas from Mars, using two orbiters at once so scientists can see cause and effect in different places at the same moment. Principal investigator Rob Lillis of UC Berkeley called it the first science mission "to choreograph two orbiters around Mars."

The mission is a small, low-cost project led by UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, with Rocket Lab, NASA Goddard, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Advanced Space and Blue Origin as partners. It will also study the solar wind during its 10-month cruise.

Mars itself is easy to find right now: look east before dawn for a reddish point near brilliant Jupiter and the star Regulus in Leo. See our Mars page for more.

What comes next: the probes are scheduled to fire their engines to enter Mars orbit on September 7 and 9, 2027. After months of maneuvering into formation, science operations should begin in June 2028.