NASA’s twin Mars-bound ESCAPADE spacecraft captured rare images of Earth and the Moon on July 3, 2026, from a distance of 363,250 miles (584,600 kilometers) from Earth and 115,600 miles (186,100 kilometers) from the Moon (Source). The ESCAPADE, which stands for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, mission used its Visible and Infrared Observation System cameras to photograph the planetary bodies as a crucial test for the journey ahead (Source).
ESCAPADE Spacecraft Capture Rare Earth and Moon Calibration Images
The Visible and Infrared Observation System cameras were provided by Northern Arizona University (Source) in Flagstaff (Source). Because Earth and the Moon serve as well-known targets, the imaging session provided an important calibration check for the spacecraft instruments (Source).
Visible Versus Thermal Infrared Imagery
The July 3 photographs revealed stark differences when captured across different wavelengths (Source). In visible light, with the Sun only partially illuminating the two bodies, both Earth and the Moon appeared as thin crescents with roughly 8 percent of their faces sunlit (Source).
The thermal infrared imagery told an entirely different story (Source): * Earth: Appeared completely illuminated in infrared due to heat radiated from its atmosphere and surface, glowing at minus 10 to minus 44 degrees Fahrenheit (250 to 280 kelvins) (Source). * The Moon: Maintained an extremely cold far side dropping to minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (100 kelvins) because it lacks the insulating blankets of oceans and atmospheres (Source).
We are thrilled that ESCAPADE was able to accommodate these excellent space-qualified cameras which will search for visible Martian aurora and investigate thermal properties of the Martian surface and atmosphere,
Rob Lillis, the mission’s principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement (Source). Since Earth and the Moon are well-known targets, imaging them provides an important calibration check for ESCAPADE’s cameras.
Mission Trajectory and Mars Science Goals
Launched on November 13, 2025, the twin ESCAPADE orbiters were built by Rocket Lab (Source). The mission is funded by NASA’s Heliophysics Division as part of the Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration program, with leadership from UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory alongside partners including Rocket Lab, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Advanced Space, and Blue Origin (Source).
The spacecraft currently occupy a loiter orbit around the second Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L2), located roughly a million miles from Earth (Source). In November 2026, the orbiters will perform an Earth flyby, utilizing planetary gravity to slingshot toward Mars when the Red Planet aligns with Earth (Source).
Upon arriving at Mars in September 2027, the spacecraft will spend several months entering different orbits to prepare for two distinct science phases beginning in mid-2028 (Source). During phase 1, they will fly in a nearly identical string-of-pearls formation, moving into separate orbits during phase 2 to simultaneously study different regions of the Martian magnetic environment (Source). The mission aims to investigate how a million-mile-per-hour solar wind interacts with Mars’ thin atmosphere and magnetized crust, ultimately helping scientists understand how the planet lost its once-thick atmosphere (Source).
