WASHINGTON — Two NASA smallsats are headed toward Mars after completing flybys of Earth nearly a year after their launch. The second of two Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or ESCAPADE, spacecraft, nicknamed Gold, flew by Earth at about 6 a.m. Eastern Nov. 9, coming within about 1,050 kilometers of Earth. That took place a little more than 48 hours after the first ESCAPADE spacecraft, Blue, made a similar flyby at an altitude of about 1,600 kilometers. During both flybys, the Rocket Lab-built spacecraft fired their engines, using…
