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Dragonfly

Making multiple flights, NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft will explore a variety of locations on Saturn's moon Titan.

  • NASA’s Dragonfly Completes First Simulated Flight

    A technician in protective cleanroom gear carefully works on a spacecraft component surrounded by wiring and thermal insulation.

    Separated from its protective backshell, NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft autonomously speeds over the sand dunes of Titan. It scans the terrain below, searching for a safe place to land. When Dragonfly discovers a safe site, it turns, descends, and lands at the selected location, touching down for the first time on the surface of Saturn’s largest […]

  • NASA’s Dragonfly Gets Wired Up While Titan Landing Area Is Named

    Workers attach electrical wiring to various spacecraft system components inside a clean room.

    Peeking into the clean room at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, it might be one of the first things you notice about NASA’s Dragonfly: the dozens of silver cables snaking around and through the structure of the in-progress, Titan-bound rotorcraft. Collectively, these bundles of wires, cables, and connectors make up […]

  • NASA’s Dragonfly Clears Key Tests as Titan Rotorcraft Takes Shape

    Dragonfly’s lander frame assembly hangs from red straps during a ground vibration test at APL.

    NASA’s Dragonfly is starting to look less like a collection of spacecraft parts and more like the rotorcraft that will fly across the surface of Titan, Saturn’s hazy moon. The mission reached a major milestone on June 29, when the Dragonfly team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, delivered the […]

  • NASA’s Dragonfly Flight System Faces Heat

    A spacecraft technician inspects a circular antenna in a foam-walled, soundproof test chamber.

    In preparation for the journey to reach the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, the heat shield for NASA’s Dragonfly mission completed thermal-structural testing in the New Mexico desert. Dragonfly team members, including those from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and Lockheed […]

  • NASA’s Dragonfly Rotorcraft Gets Decked Out, Tested

    Technicians in cleanroom suits assemble panels of a NASA spacecraft in a brightly lit lab.

    NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft is beginning to take shape – literally – with the delivery of the panels that make up the rotorcraft lander’s body. Built from ultra‑lightweight honeycomb panels designed at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, the primary structure is specially designed for the challenges of flight on Saturn’s largest moon Titan.

  • NASA’s Dragonfly Mission Begins Rotorcraft Integration, Testing Stage

    Engineers in cleanroom suits at Johns Hopkins APL connect an electronics box to a NASA spacecraft wiring system

    NASA Dragonfly’s integration and testing – the activities involved in assembling the mission’s rotorcraft lander and testing it for the rigors of launch and extreme conditions of space – is officially underway in clean rooms and control rooms at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. In partnership with teams across government, […]

  • NASA’s Dragonfly Soaring Through Key Development, Test Activities

    A man in a blue T-shirt on a ladder adjusting the rotor blades for the spacecraft model in the wind tunnel

    NASA’s Dragonfly mission has cleared several key design, development and testing milestones and remains on track toward launch in July 2028. Dragonfly, a car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft being designed and built for NASA at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will explore Saturn’s moon Titan. Following launch and a six-year journey to […]

  • NASA’s Dragonfly Passes Critical Design Review

    NASA’s Dragonfly, the first rotorcraft designed for science exploration on another planet, has passed its Critical Design Review. The mission to Saturn’s icy moon Titan will investigate prebiotic chemical processes and complex organic compounds that, on Earth, are the building blocks of life. Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration, and […]