Rocket Lab Spacecraft Use Earth Gravity to Head for Mars Orbit Twice

At a glance

This video is from Rocket Lab's official channel. Two spacecraft each completed a powered Earth gravity assist two days apart, a maneuver that uses Earth's gravity to speed up and send them toward Mars orbit.

What the video covers

1. 1

   A gravity assist uses a planet's gravity to increase a spacecraft's speed.

2. 2

   The ESCAPADE mission showed that a route to Mars is possible outside the Earth-to-Mars launch window that comes every 26 months.

Why watch it?

This is a good watch for anyone curious whether a new route to Mars has actually worked in space exploration.