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Lower-cost space missions like NASA’s ESCAPADE are starting to deliver exciting science – but at a price in risk and trade‑offs

  • Written by Ari Koeppel, Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Scientist and Adjunct Associate, Dartmouth College
imageThis artist's rendering shows the ESCAPADE probes near Mars.NASA

After a yearslong series of setbacks, NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or ESCAPADE, mission has finally begun its roundabout journey to Mars.

Launched on Nov. 13, 2025, aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, ESCAPADE’s twin probes will...

Read more: Lower-cost space missions like NASA’s ESCAPADE are starting to deliver exciting science – but at a...

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