Blue Origin’s New Glenn successfully launched NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars on November 13, 2025, marking its second flight and its first ocean booster landing on the ship Jacklyn. The mission deploys twin satellites built by Rocket Lab to study how the solar wind strips Mars’ atmosphere during a 22-month journey to the Red Planet.

A large-scale AI analysis of more than two million Mars orbiter images shows that the planet’s dark slope streaks form through seasonal dust avalanches, not flowing briny water. The results settle a long-running debate, revealing that wind-driven dust activity shapes Mars’ surface and offering new insights into the planet’s climate past and exploration future.