Sending anything to Mars is a much more difficult process than it seems. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union tried (and failed) in its first nine consecutive attempts, and the US was only able to succeed in quick flybys. The losing streak came to an end in 1971 with the success of the Mariner 9, the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.
More than 50 years later, Mars is still tough to get to, with only seven functional orbiters and two on-surface rovers still operating, most of which are run by NASA.
On Sunday, NASA's Escapade, a collaborative effort among the space agency, UC Berkeley and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, will launch and attempt to add two more orbiters to the elusive club of successful missions to Mars. Liftoff is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. ET.
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket will lift off on Sunday, Nov. 4, to deploy two orbiters that will eventually head to Mars. Blue Origin
The mission is simple on paper: Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket will launch two Escapade orbiters into space on Nov. 9, depending on the weather and other factors.
Once there, the orbiters -- nicknamed Blue and Gold after UC Berkeley's school colors -- will separate. This is where things get a little complicated. Blue and Gold will hang out at the L2 Earth-Sun Lagrange point, a part of space behind the Earth when viewed from the sun, where the orbiters can quite literally hang out without getting lost in space. They'll stay there for a year before doing a quick flyby of Earth and departing for Mars. The twin orbiters are expected to arrive at the Red Planet by November 2027.
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Space agencies launch missions all the time but few of them have the subtext of Escapade, which has not one but three underlying storylines to pay attention to.
New Glenn will take Escapade into space, deploy the orbiters and then return to Earth. If all goes well, Blue Origins will land the rocket on a ship in the Atlantic. Blue Origin
New Glenn's official debut
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