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Dragonfly Mission Passes Critical Design Review

, the first rotorcraft designed for scientific exploration on another ocean world, has passed its Critical Design Review. Led by the 秘密直播 Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, the mission to Saturn鈥檚 icy moon Titan will investigate prebiotic chemical processes and complex organic compounds that, on Earth, are the building blocks of life.

Passing this milestone means that Dragonfly鈥檚 design is mature and can enter full-scale fabrication, integration and testing and that the team can turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft.

鈥淚鈥檓 so proud of what this team has accomplished in bringing this audacious mission to reality,鈥 said Dragonfly Principal Investigator Elizabeth 鈥淶ibi鈥 Turtle, of APL. 鈥淎fter years of design and testing, we are excited to start building Dragonfly itself and prepare for its game-changing voyage of exploration across an intriguing, mysterious ocean world.鈥

The will launch in 2028 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA鈥檚 Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After a 6陆-year journey to Titan, the nuclear-powered, car-sized drone will spend more than three years exploring this alien world. Essentially a flying chemistry lab, along with cameras and other science instrumentation, Dragonfly will travel between dozens of landing sites on Titan鈥檚 surface to investigate the chemical origins of life 鈥 achieving critical planetary science and astrobiology objectives while advancing aeronautics and space technology.

鈥淲e鈥檙e motivated by the confidence NASA has shown in APL and our partners to execute this bold and innovative mission,鈥 said Andrew Driesman, APL鈥檚 mission area executive for Civil Space Flight. 鈥淭hrough collaboration with NASA, industry and academia, the Dragonfly team is drawing on a deep well of scientific and engineering expertise to explore another solar system body in a manner unlike anything humanity has done before.鈥

Dragonfly is being designed and built under the direction of APL, which manages the mission for NASA. The team includes key partners at NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado; Sikorsky in Stratford, Connecticut; NASA鈥檚 Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California; NASA鈥檚 Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania; Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach, Florida; Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego; Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California; NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; the U.S. Department of Energy; the French space agency (CNES) in Paris; the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, Germany; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California; and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Tokyo.

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