SpaceX has received a NASA contract worth approximately $256.6 million to provide launch services for the Dragonfly rotorcraft lander mission meant to explore Saturn’s largest moon Titan by sampling materials and determining surface composition in various geologic settings.
NASA said Monday it expects the Dragonfly mission to lift off between July 5, 2028, and July 25, 2028, from a launch complex at Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.
In addition to launch services, the firm-fixed-price contract also covers other mission-related costs.
What is Dragonfly Mission?
Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program that the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages for the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
The rotorcraft lander’s scientific payload will look into the habitability of Saturn’s moon, explore the progression of prebiotic chemistry on Titan and identify chemical signs of whether hydrocarbon- or water-based life once existed on Titan.
The Dragonfly team is composed of engineers, scientists and technologists with experience in solar system exploration missions, as well as experts in autonomous flight, rotorcraft and space systems worldwide.
NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center oversees the launch services.
