Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
NASA’s Dragonfly passed its Critical Design Review, clearing the way for construction ahead of its 2028 launch to Saturn’s mysterious moon, Titan.
Credit: NASA
Shaped like a car with eight rotors, Dragonfly will fly across Titan’s rugged, icy landscape, carrying cameras, samplers, and mass spectrometers.
Credit: NASA
Dragonfly will be powered by a nuclear battery, giving it the energy to roam Titan’s frigid, methane-soaked plains for over three years.
Credit: NASA
Titan’s thick nitrogen-rich atmosphere and methane lakes make it one of the Solar System’s best bets for studying alien prebiotic chemistry.
Dragonfly’s design allows vertical takeoffs and landings, enabling it to reach multiple sites and gather samples from varied geological terrains.
Scheduled for a SpaceX Falcon Heavy lift-off between July 5–25, 2028, Dragonfly will embark on a 7-year journey to Titan, arriving in 2034.
Titan’s surface temperature hovers around -290°F, yet its rich chemistry could mirror early Earth conditions, offering clues to life’s origins.
Dragonfly will be the first rotorcraft to explore another world, revolutionizing planetary exploration beyond traditional rovers and landers.
If Dragonfly finds complex organic molecules, it could redefine our understanding of life’s potential across the cosmos, far beyond Earth-like conditions.