NASA delays ESCAPADE Mars launch on Blue Origin’s giant New Glenn rocket to 2025 to avoid potential cost overruns
Posted on: October 21, 2024
As seen on Space.com
Blue Origin’s huge New Glenn rocket won’t debut next month after all.
New Glenn, the company’s partially reusable new heavy lifter, had been scheduled to launch NASA’s twin ESCAPADE Mars probes from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida during an eight-day window that opens on Oct. 13. But that’s no longer the plan.
“The agency’s decision to stand down was based on a review of launch preparations and discussions with Blue Origin, the Federal Aviation Administration and Space Launch Delta 45 Range Safety Organization, as well as NASA’s Launch Services Program and Science Mission Directorate,” NASA officials wrote in an update today (Sept. 6).
“The decision was made to avoid significant cost, schedule and technical challenges associated with potentially removing fuel from the spacecraft in the event of a launch delay, which could be caused by a number of factors,” they added.
NASA and Blue Origin are discussing new liftoff dates for ESCAPADE, with the earliest possible option now falling in spring of 2025, according to the update. That seems puzzlingly soon, given that launch windows for Mars missions come along just once every 26 months. (That’s the interval on which Earth and the Red Planet align to allow efficient deep-space travel.)
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