The NASA dragonfly Dragonfly mission aims to launch in 2028 to explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

CTOnews.com, December 3 (Xinhua)-- the NASA dragonfly (Dragonfly) mission is tentatively scheduled for July 2028 to explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

The team will advance the phase C mission and plan to develop a car-sized nuclear-powered rotor UAV that will fly and land over Titan.

CTOnews.com Note: the mission was proposed by the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in April 2017. the launch was originally planned for 2026, but has been postponed because of funding problems.

▲ Photo Source: NASA "the dragonfly team has successfully overcome many technical and planning challenges in this bold mission to gather new scientific knowledge about Titan," said Nicola Fox, deputy director of the NASA Science Mission Council. "I am proud of this team and their ability to move all aspects of the mission forward."

At the meeting of the NASA Exoplanet Assessment Panel (OPAG) on November 28, Lori Glaze, director of the agency's planetary science department, revealed that the project was originally scheduled to be implemented in 2027, but NASA's Agency Project Management Committee (APMC) decided to postpone formal confirmation of dragonfly and official cost calculation and schedule because of uncertainty about how much funding the project would receive.

The team will reschedule the mission as required, and after completing the necessary restructuring and review, NASA will formally evaluate the mission launch preparation date in mid-2024. This means that some projects in the design and manufacture of the dragonfly mission will be postponed, while others will continue to move forward.