BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Blue Origin on Thursday launched its New Glenn rocket after NASA postponed the mission due to highly elevated solar activity this week.
According to the company, the rocket launch — dubbed the “New Glenn Mission NG-2″ — sent NASA’s ESCAPADE twin spacecraft to Mars from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
[WATCH: News 6’s James Sparvero reports on Blue Origin launch]
The launch officially took off shortly before 4 p.m.
Nine minutes later, Blue Origin accomplished another milestone - landing a rocket booster for the first time.
Company employees who watched at the beach where Cape Canaveral Community Correspondent James Sparvero was reporting from were ecstatic.
“I’m so proud of this team,” Savannah Wooldridge said. “Everybody’s worked really hard to get here. For the benefit of Earth!”
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The heightened solar conditions on Wednesday posed potential risks to the ESCAPADE spacecraft scheduled to be aboard the rocket, Blue Origin said in a post on X.
Wednesday’s postponed launch followed Sunday’s launch attempt, which was scrubbed due to weather.
As the mission’s name implies, this launch is set to be the second ever for the company’s New Glenn rocket.
“This launch will support ESCAPADE’s science objectives as the twin spacecraft progress on their journey to the Red Planet,” officials said. “Also onboard is a technology demonstration from Viasat in support of NASA’s Communications Services Project.”
Once in orbit around Mars, the spacecraft will conduct an 11-month science mission, making simultaneous observations from different locations.
Manufactured by Rocket Lab over 3.5 years, the twin orbiters will carry scientific instruments developed by the University of California, Berkeley. Their goal is to study Mars’ magnetosphere and its response to space weather in real time.
ESCAPADE is the first multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to Mars. It will analyze how Mars’ magnetic field guides particle flows, how energy and momentum move from the solar wind through the magnetosphere, and what controls the low of energy and matter into and out of the Martian atmosphere.
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