ESCAPADE spacecraft capture first images while en route to Mars

by Vanessa Thomas for NASA News
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 26, 2025

About a week after liftoff, the twin spacecraft of NASA's ESCAPADE mission returned their first images as they journey away from Earth. On November 21, one of the two spacecraft used its Visible and Infrared Observation System - developed at Northern Arizona University - to photograph the edge of a solar panel.

The pair of self-portraits includes a visible-light photo and an infrared image, showing the panel's surface temperature distribution. The visible-light view hints at a camera sensitivity sufficient for future scientific observations, including Martian aurora. The infrared camera will gather data at Mars for studying how surface materials respond to heat and cooling throughout each Martian day and season.

The second spacecraft also conducted tests with its imaging system, returning black images after pointing its camera toward deep space.

Rocket Lab built both spacecraft, which launched November 13 on a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission will study the impact of solar wind - a stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun - on the Martian atmosphere, helping characterize how planetary atmospheric loss occurs.

Both spacecraft are currently in a holding orbit near Lagrange point 2, about a million miles from Earth. In November 2026, the pair will use Earth's gravity in a maneuver to redirect them to Mars, with arrival scheduled for September 2027.

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