The spacecraft named Blue completed a smooth 13.8 second engine burn as planned, verifying system performance ahead of the much longer engine burns planned in the next two weeks. These longer burns will redirect the twin spacecraft towards Lagrange Point 2, a gravitational balance point, where they'll wait for the optimal window to continue their journey to Mars.

But before then though, it's Gold's turn, with its first TCM planned for 8 Dec.

Learn more on our ESCAPADE blog: bit.ly/48fci0T

Today, more than 1.59 million kilometers from Earth, a spacecraft we built for NASA and ucbssl's ESCAPADE Mars mission successfully fired its engine for the first time.

The first trajectory correction maneuver on our journey to Mars is complete! ✅

Key stats from the qualification campaign:
✅Opening and closing of Neutron's fairing halves under flight-like conditions in 1.5 seconds, less than half the time required for a successful stage separation and vehicle re-orientation for return to Earth.
✅275,000 pounds of force distributed across its carbon composite structure to simulate the load experienced during Max Q, the stage of flight of Neutron will experience maximum aerodynamic pressure.
✅125% mechanical load testing of the canards that help guide Stage 1's trajectory through launch and re-entry.

We've completed qualification & acceptance testing of the Hungry Hippo fairing for Neutron 🚀 With the design, structure, and operations of Neutron's fixed reusable fairing and upper module now proven out, Hungry Hippo is ready for launch.

Today's successful launch for QPS_Inc has set a new annual launch record for Electron: 21 launches in one year with 100% mission success!

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀💯

What a year!

✅ A record launch year for Electron and HASTE with 21 launches and 100% mission success.

✅Opened Launch Complex 3.

✅Qualified Neutron's Hungry Hippo Fairing and second stage for flight.

✅ ESCAPADE is on the way to Mars.

✅Welcomed Geost to the Rocket Lab family.

✅Awarded $816M contract by SDA to produce more satellites for the PWSA, our largest contract ever.

✅ + so much more.

We’re ready to make 2026 even bigger.

Launch update:🚀Due to strong winds and incoming bad weather, we're rescheduling our launch attempt for open_cosmos. New launch date will be later this week, weather pending.

The ESCAPADE mission has won an Erdayastronaut Astro Award! 🎉

We're proud to be recognized for our role in making interplanetary exploration possible at unprecedented speeds and for a fraction of the cost of traditional missions.

More than 100 spacecraft were safely deployed to precise orbits by Rocket Lab separation systems in 2025, soaring past our previous annual record of 64 separations.

Another year of 100% mission success for these critical systems