NASA's Nuclear-Powered 'Dragonfly' Rotorcraft Clears Critical Checkpoint

Dragonfly, NASA's nuclear-powered rotorcraft-in-progress, has cleared a pivotal checkpoint, the agency announced Thursday. Dragonfly's critical design review—required for all of NASA's unmanned missions—involved a close inspection of the mission's design, fabrication, integration, and test plans, all of which were reportedly approved. Construction can now begin on the $3.35 billion project.

Dragonfly will explore a world largely untouched by Earthly science: Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The second-largest moon in the solar system (after Jupiter's Ganymede), Titan possesses a thick, stormy atmosphere, pools of liquid water, and even a key organic molecule, leading scientists to wonder whether it harbors simple forms of life. Because the Earth-like moon is so far away, however, only one spacecraft has ever landed on its surface. In 2005, the Huygens probe—part of NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission—touched down near Titan's Adiri region, which scientists think is ...