logo
NASA's Dragonfly nuclear-powered helicopter clears key hurdle ahead of 2028 launch toward huge Saturn moon Titan

NASA's Dragonfly nuclear-powered helicopter clears key hurdle ahead of 2028 launch toward huge Saturn moon Titan

Yahoo26-04-2025

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
NASA's pioneering Dragonfly mission has cleared a key hurdle, keeping it on track for a 2028 launch to Saturn's huge moon Titan.
Dragonfly, a car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft designed to investigate Titan's potential to host life, passed its Critical Design Review, NASA announced on Thursday (April 24).
"Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly's mission design, fabrication, integration and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself," a NASA statement reads.
The $3.35 billion Dragonfly mission was first selected by NASA in 2019 and is being designed and built under the direction of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, with APL's Elizabeth Turtle as the principal investigator.
The mission has been hit by delays and cost overruns, but studying Titan is considered a high priority by scientists for its potential to harbor alien life.
The mission is set to launch no earlier than July 2028 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will then embark on an almost seven-year-long voyage through deep space to the Saturn system, with the goal of spending more than three years studying areas across Titan's frigid and diverse surface.
Equipped with cameras, sensors and samplers, Dragonfly will assess Titan's habitability, looking out for prebiotic chemistry as well as potential signs of life.
Related: NASA greenlights 2028 launch for epic Dragonfly mission to Saturn's huge moon Titan
Related stories:
— NASA's nuclear-powered Dragonfly helicopter will ride a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket toward Saturn moon Titan
— Nuclear-powered Dragonfly mission to Saturn moon Titan delayed until 2028, NASA says
— NASA's Titan Dragonfly will touch down on a field of dunes and shattered ice
Titan is Saturn's largest moon, and the second largest in the solar system behind Ganymede of Jupiter. Its thick, hazy atmosphere shrouds a surface featuring dunes of hydrocarbons and methane lakes. Beneath the moon's icy crust, scientists think there's a subsurface ocean of salty water, adding to the possibilities for Titan to harbor life.
In 2005, NASA's Cassini mission delivered the Huygens probe to Titan. The European Space Agency-built Huygens made a parachute-assisted landing, which provided profound insights into the giant moon. Dragonfly, if successful, could revolutionize our understanding of how life might arise elsewhere in the solar system.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

NASA astronaut's first ISS time-lapse is a real stunner
NASA astronaut's first ISS time-lapse is a real stunner

Digital Trends

time3 hours ago

  • Digital Trends

NASA astronaut's first ISS time-lapse is a real stunner

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim has shared his first-ever time-lapse from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) — and it's a real stunner. The dramatic 68-second clip shows a changing view of Earth as the space-based facility orbits our planet at an altitude of about 250 miles. Recommended Videos 'My first time-lapse,' Kim wrote in a social media post that included the video (below). Kim said he managed to nail it thanks to some time-lapse tips shared by fellow astronaut Nichole Ayers. 'After seeing the result, I told her this felt like fishing,' Kim wrote. 'Prepping the camera, the angle, the settings, the mount, then setting your timer and coming back to hope you got a catch. And after catching my first fish, I think I'm hooked.' My first time-lapse. Thanks to some instruction and tips from @Astro_Ayers, I caught my first aurora. After seeing the result, I told her this felt like fishing. Prepping the camera, the angle, the settings, the mount, then setting your timer and coming back to hope you got a… — Jonny Kim (@JonnyKimUSA) June 6, 2025 The video shows the space station flying into the night, with city lights in Asia and Australia visible far below, and bright stars shining in the far distance. A short while later, a gorgeous aurora appears over the horizon before filling much of the frame. Toward the end of the clip, one of the station's solar arrays also come into view. Auroras are natural light displays in Earth's sky, caused by charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. While also viewable from parts of Earth, astronauts on the ISS can also enjoy a unique view of this natural wonder. Indeed, for most astronauts, witnessing auroras is one of the highlights of their time in orbit. Earlier this year, another NASA astronaut, Don Pettit, shared a dramatic view of an aurora, captured as the ISS flew directly over it. Kim arrived at the space station with two Russian cosmonauts after launching aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in April this year. With another four months of his mission left to run, hopefully the American will have time to create more clips similar to his first outstanding effort.

Musk Is the $350 Billion Rocket Man Who Fell to Earth
Musk Is the $350 Billion Rocket Man Who Fell to Earth

Bloomberg

time3 hours ago

  • Bloomberg

Musk Is the $350 Billion Rocket Man Who Fell to Earth

The popcorn emoji is out in force as the world's richest person feuds with its most powerful leader. Even Thierry Breton, the European regulator who was a frequent target of Elon Musk's ire, is at it. Still, as entertaining as the billionaire's spat with Donald Trump may be, it also carries costly lessons for a $630 billion space economy dominated by Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — such is the danger of codependence between de facto monopolies and increasingly protectionist states. This danger wasn't high on the agenda at the peak of Trump's bromance with Musk, when the president-elect described SpaceX's reusable rocket revolution in the way a Renaissance monarch might have praised a successful colonial expedition — with a mix of national pride, geopolitical influence and financial potential: ' I called Elon. I said, 'Elon, was that [landing maneuver] you?' He said, 'Yes, it was.' I said, '...Can Russia do it?' 'No.' 'Can China do it?' 'No.' 'Can the United States do it, other than you?' 'No, nobody can do that.' 'That's why I love you, Elon.''

Sen. Warren asks for contingency plans on national security after Trump and Musk's social media fallout
Sen. Warren asks for contingency plans on national security after Trump and Musk's social media fallout

CBS News

time4 hours ago

  • CBS News

Sen. Warren asks for contingency plans on national security after Trump and Musk's social media fallout

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for information on the Trump administration's contingency plans if billionaire Elon Musk breaches his companies' current contracts with the U.S. amid the ongoing public fallout between him and President Trump. In a letter to Rubio as acting national security adviser and obtained by CBS News, Warren said Mr. Trump and Musk's public disagreements about the upcoming reconciliation bill that escalated into a public online spat could "have serious implications for U.S. national security." The Massachusetts Democrat mentioned Mr. Trump's proposal to terminate Musk's government contracts and subsidies, which the world's richest man followed with a threat that SpaceX would "begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately." Musk has since walked back his threat. "No petty social media fight between the president and a billionaire should jeopardize U.S. national security," Warren said. In addition to contingency plans for SpaceX, the senator asked for information regarding the impact on U.S. agencies' satellite communications if Musk's Starlink is turned off. Additionally, she asked Rubio to provide any analysis that the Trump administration has conducted "of its authorities and options under the Defense Production Act to address vendor lock, monopolies, or contractor refusal to meet national security needs." She asked to receive answers to her questions by June 14, whether through a classified briefing or preferably a public response that can be released to Congress and the public, the letter said. Warren has been a vocal opponent of Musk and his involvement in the Trump administration. Last week, she released a report that outlines instances her office has found of Musk benefiting from it. Musk's rocket company has received tens of billions of dollars from the federal government over the last decade, including $3.8 billion in the 2024 fiscal year alone, according to federal records. The bulk of those federal grants are from NASA, which has paid SpaceX billions over the last decade to ferry astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space Station. The agency has also awarded SpaceX upwards of $2 billion in recent years to design and build a lunar lander, as part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon for the first time in a half-century. While the public spat appears to have cooled somewhat, Mr. Trump told NBC News' Kristen Welker in a phone interview on Saturday that he has no plans to make up with the mega-billionaire. "I'm too busy doing other things," Trump continued. "You know, I won an election in a landslide. I gave him a lot of breaks, long before this happened, I gave him breaks in my first administration, and saved his life in my first administration, I have no intention of speaking to him." When asked by a reporter Friday if he's still considering rolling back subsidies to Musk as a money-saving move, Mr. Trump suggested he was open to it. "He's got a lot of money, he gets a lot of subsidy. So we'll take a look at that," the president said on Air Force One. "Only if it's fair for him and for the country. I would certainly think about it, but it has to be fair." This isn't the first time the president has needled Musk over his companies' federal subsidies. In a 2022 feud, Mr. Trump claimed Musk would be "worthless" without hefty subsidies for "electric cars that don't drive long enough" and "rocketships to nowhere." The two mended their relationship then and Musk spent hundreds of millions to help elect Mr. Trump in 2024. The billionaire went on to lead the Trump White House's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency until last week. contributed to this report.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store