Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
Blue Origin has won a contract to launch NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission.
The deal marks the first interplanetary project for the private space firm founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
- Blue Origin will deploy its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket to launch NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in 2024.
- ESCAPADE is short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers.
- The mission will send two identical ESCAPADE spacecraft on an 11-month journey to Mars.
- Once
they enter Mars orbit, the spacecraft will gather data on the
planet's magnetosphere and how it interacts with solar radiation.
- Blue Origin competes for launch contracts with several private space companies, including SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.
- New Glenn rockets are slated to conduct 24 launches to
deploy satellites for Project Kuiper, a satellite internet service
being developed by Amazon, another company founded by Jeff Bezos.
- The development of the New Glenn has faced delays and the rocket has not yet made its maiden flight.
