NASA’s Dragonfly mission to explore Saturn’s moon Titan has passed its critical design review. The rotorcraft, designed to investigate prebiotic chemical processes and complex organic compounds on the icy moon, will now focus on building the spacecraft.
Set to launch no earlier than July 2028, Dragonfly will travel over three years to reach Titan’s surface and spend multiple years studying various landing sites across its diverse terrain. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is managing the mission for NASA, with APL principal investigator Elizabeth Turtle at the helm.
The team of international partners includes major space agencies like NASA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), German Aerospace Center (DLR), and CNES, as well as prominent contractors. Dragonfly marks the fourth mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program.
Source: https://astrobiology.com/2025/04/dragonfly-astrobiology-mission-passes-critical-design-review.html