NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Dragonfly Mission
The U.S. space agency has picked a Falcon Heavy to send its rotorcraft lander to Saturn’s largest moon, with a launch period in July 2028

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NASA Headquarters
Contract release, Science Mission Directorate
NASAIllustration: a rotorcraft with eight rotors flies low over orange sand dunes under a hazy sky
Artist’s concept of Dragonfly soaring over the dunes of Saturn’s moon Titan. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the Dragonfly mission, a rotorcraft lander mission under NASA’s New Frontiers Program, designed to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. The mission will sample materials and determine surface composition in different geologic settings, advancing our search for the building blocks of life.

The firm-fixed-price contract has a value of approximately $256.6 million, which includes launch services and other mission related costs. The Dragonfly mission currently has a targeted launch period from July 5, 2028, to July 25, 2028, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Related: Dragonfly mission page · New Frontiers Program · Launch Services Program · Kennedy news

About this release: contract releases announce awards; the figures are the contract’s value, not the mission’s whole cost

Photograph: a white rocket stands on a launch pad beside a tall steel tower
Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy: Dragonfly won’t launch before July 2028. NASA
Dragonfly centers on novel approach to planetary exploration, employing a rotorcraft-lander to travel between and sample diverse sites on Saturn’s largest moon. With contributions from partners around the globe, Dragonfly’s scientific payload will characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment, investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry on Titan, where carbon-rich material and liquid water may have mixed for an extended period, and search for chemical indications of whether water-based or hydrocarbon-based life once existed on Saturn’s moon.

