Mission NASA DragonflyThe research, which will begin in 2028, aims to investigate the habitability and organic chemistry of Saturn’s moon Titan using a new helicopter lander.

NASA chose SpaceX To launch the Dragonfly mission, an ambitious project under the New Frontiers programme. Dragonfly is a rotorcraft lander designed to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, collecting samples from a variety of geological environments and analyzing surface composition. The mission aims to deepen our understanding of the building blocks of life.

The contract, worth approximately $256.6 million, covers launch services and related mission expenses. The mission is scheduled to launch between July 5 and 25, 2028, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Dragonfly It focuses on a new approach to planetary exploration by using a helicopter lander to travel between and explore different locations on Saturn’s largest moon. With contributions from partners around the world, the Dragonfly research program will characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment, investigate the evolution of prebiotic chemistry on Titan, where carbon-rich material and liquid water may have mixed for long periods of time, and look for chemical signatures of living things. Was there once life based on water or hydrocarbons on Saturn’s moon?