The start of NASA’s mission to study the magnetosphere of Mars was postponed due to bad weather
10 November 07:15
Blue Origin has canceled the launch of the New Glenn rocket with two American ESCAPADE probes designed to study the magnetic shell of Mars due to unfavorable weather conditions.
This is reported on the company’s page on the social network X, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The launch was supposed to take place from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida.
“The launch of NG-2 has been canceled today due to weather conditions, in particular cloud cover. We are exploring the possibilities of the next launch based on weather forecasts,” the statement said.
The ESCAPADE mission is being implemented as part of NASA’s SIMPLEx program, which supports low-budget planetary science missions. Since the launch of the program in 2015, five spacecraft have been built: three have failed, and the Janus asteroid mission has been postponed indefinitely.
The ESCAPADE probes, developed by specialists at the University of California, Berkeley, are equipped with magnetometers, plasma detectors, electrostatic analyzers, and cameras. They are supposed to study the structure and dynamics of Mars’ magnetosphere to help scientists understand how the solar wind affects the atmosphere of the “red” planet.
2025 could be called the year of the Moon in space research. For the first time in the 21st century, astronauts will fly around the back of the Earth’s satellite, and a Blue Origin lander will be sent to its south pole, which is on the heels of Elon Musk. In addition, China plans to deliver soil samples from the asteroid, and Rocket Lab will check whether there is life on Venus.
