The twin satellites, developed for the ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission, are now fully operational at the Earth–Sun Lagrange Point 2 (L2), roughly 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.
Operational control will soon be handed to the University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, which will oversee scientific operations and prepare the spacecraft for their journey to Mars.
Rocket Lab designed and built the two interplanetary spacecraft under contract to the Berkeley laboratory. The company moved from concept to launch readiness in just over three years – an unusually fast timeline for a deep-space mission.
The program demonstrates how commercial companies, research institutions and government agencies can collaborate to deliver complex space science missions faster and at lower cost than traditional approaches.
Rocket Lab said its vertically integrated production model helped accelerate development, with major spacecraft components, including solar arrays, reaction wheels, propellant tanks, star trackers, radios, avionics and flight software, designed and manufactured by the company in-house.
The two spacecraft, named Blue and Gold, were launched in November 2025 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Since launch, they have completed their commissioning phase and carried out two trajectory-correction manoeuvres to place them into a holding orbit near L2.
Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Sir Peter Beck said the mission highlights the benefits of closer collaboration between commercial and scientific partners.
“ESCAPADE shows what can be achieved when government, universities and commercial teams work together with a shared sense of urgency,” Beck said. “We’ve built two Mars-bound spacecraft on a timeline many considered unrealistic. It’s another example of Rocket Lab delivering complex missions for NASA and our partners.”
He said the mission would contribute important scientific data to support long-term exploration of Mars, including planning for future communications infrastructure such as a dedicated Mars telecommunications orbiter.
The ESCAPADE mission will investigate how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ atmosphere, gradually stripping away particles into space. Understanding this process will provide new insights into how the Red Planet lost much of its atmosphere and help scientists better understand its space-weather environment.
Before departing for Mars, the spacecraft will continue operating near L2 until November 2026. During this period, scientists will test onboard instruments and collect early heliophysics data from Earth’s magnetotail, the elongated region of the planet’s magnetic field that is stretched away from the sun by the solar wind.
In November 2026, the spacecraft will perform a gravity-assist manoeuvre around Earth to accelerate towards Mars. If all goes to plan, Blue and Gold will arrive in orbit around the planet in September 2027, with full science operations expected to begin in 2028.