A truly… titanic rocket. Planned for many years as part of the program New FrontiersNASA’s Dragonfly mission plans to continue the study of Titan, Saturn’s largest natural satellite, in more depth.
While its takeoff is scheduled for 2028, the mission still lacked a means of transport. It is now done according to Numerama: the American space agency announced this Monday that it would use the Falcon Heavy for this mission, which is none other than the largest operational rocket from the company SpaceX.
An improved Falcon 9
In detail, this is the Falcon 9 rocket to which two additional boosters have been added, which themselves are the first two stages of two other Falcon 9 rockets.
This will allow NASA to have much greater thrust, which will be necessary to reach the confines of the Jupiterian system with on-board equipment.
Starship trail ruled out
This choice remained unresolved for a long time. Another possibility was in fact considered: that of using the Starship, the new SpaceX launcher currently under development.
If the latter must be ready at the end of 2026 for the launch of the Artemis III mission, the space agency however preferred to rule out its use for the Dragonfly mission for fear of a delay in development.
A departure in July 2028
According to our colleagues, the Falcon Heavy should take off from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida (United States), between July 5 and 25, 2028. Its journey should then last more than six years, with an arrival on Titan planned for December 2034 .
The objective? Deploy a large drone equipped with eight rotors on the surface of Titan to facilitate the exploration of this satellite which could potentially harbor life or provide the conditions for it under its thick nitrogen atmosphere. “Dragonfly will help advance astrobiology and our search for the building blocks of life,” NASA concluded in its press release.
Swiss
Related News :