Watch: How UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory leads NASA missions like ESCAPADE

Perched high in the hills above campus, it's one of only two university-based centers in the U.S. capable of managing the entire life cycle of a satellite mission.

October 8, 2026

On any given day at the Space Sciences Laboratory, engineers may be downloading data from satellites orbiting the moon, monitoring instruments capturing geomagnetic storms on the sun or scheduling engines to fire and propel a spacecraft toward Mars.

Perched high in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus, the 67-year-old lab is one of only two university-based centers in the U.S. capable of managing the entire life cycle of a satellite mission. SSL currently controls nine spacecraft out of its Mission Operations Center. Over the course of the lab’s history, scientists and engineers — aided by hundreds of Berkeley students — have designed, built and operated instruments for more than 100 satellite projects to explore our solar system.

The latest is ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers), consisting of two spacecraft — Blue and Gold — that will make their final pass close to Earth in early November, firing their engines toward Mars. In this short video, part of our ongoing series Born at UC Berkeley, learn more about SSL and ESCAPADE from our host, Angela Zhang (class of ’26).

The ESCAPADE mission, led by Rob Lillis and launched by NASA on Nov. 13, 2025, is designed to study the magnetic field of Mars and measure the escape of atmospheric gases to understand how and when the planet lost its atmosphere. Once its twin satellites slip into orbit around the Red Planet in late 2027, they will give scientists their first stereo view of Mars’ magnetosphere and map the ionosphere and space environment, providing crucial information about Mars’ evolution over the past 4.5 billion years. While the mission’s science instruments, deployable booms and data processing system were built by SSL scientists and their partners, the ESCAPADE spacecraft were built by Rocket Lab USA, headquartered in Long Beach, California.

What the scientists learn will also help plan future crewed missions to Mars. ESCAPADE will assess conditions that affect radio communication on the surface and provide information about the surface environment key for human survival and the success of future efforts to colonize the planet.

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