Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) („Rocket Lab” or the „Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, has successfully packed and sent two spacecraft bound for Mars. For starters. The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) twin spacecraft for the heliophysics mission were designed, built, integrated, and tested by the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory and the Rocket Laboratory for NASA.
The spacecraft, known as Blue and Gold, recently completed extensive assembly, integration and testing at the Rocket Laboratory’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California. Following this milestone, the rocket lab team performed final shutdown activities, including installation of the spacecraft’s solar arrays and multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets.
Upon arrival at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch complex, Rocket Lab team members will transfer the spacecraft to a clean room for post-transport inspections and tests. Following thorough tests, the team will begin preparations to fuel the spacecraft in anticipation of an upcoming launch on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
„We’ve already been to the moon for NASA, so we’re excited to build on that and send Rocket Lab technology deep into the solar system,” said Sir Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO. „To help NASA and the University of California, Berkeley further humanity’s understanding of Mars, our Space Systems team has developed a beautiful and highly capable pair of spacecraft. We couldn’t be more proud to be an ESCAPADE mission partner to carry out science and exploration beyond our planet. A delicate but nimble creation.” And after the testing phase, we’re excited to see the blue and gold cape and one step closer to Mars.
„The successful delivery of the shuttle to Kennedy Space Center marks a significant milestone and the culmination of more than three years of dedicated teamwork from individuals on the program, especially our partners at Rocket Lab,” said Rob Lillis, ESCAPADE Principal Investigator and Associate Director. Planetary science at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory requires interplanetary spacecraft to be more robust than Earth satellites, and creating not one, but two, of these probes almost from scratch, time and time again, is the rocket lab’s agility and tireless effort that often puts them in 'hero mode’ (the program’s proverbial ) impressed me, and we couldn’t have asked for better partners in this endeavor on this first step of our journey to Mars!”
Once launched, the ESCAPADE mission will measure the plasma and magnetic fields around the Red Planet. These observations will help scientists unravel the processes that remove atoms from Mars’ magnetosphere and upper atmosphere, providing important insights into Martian climate evolution.
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