NASA completes Dragonfly wiring and officially names Titan landing site Ahmakiq Undae
NASA finished installing the wiring harness on its Dragonfly rotorcraft and announced that the International Astronomical Union has approved Ahmakiq Undae as the probe's Titan landing zone.
NASA has completed the wiring of its Dragonfly rotorcraft, fitting a harness with about 17,315 feet of conductor wire, 374 connectors and a battery weighing nearly 300 pounds, bringing the harness weight to roughly 100 pounds. The 13-foot, eight-rotor, nuclear-powered drone is scheduled for a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch no earlier than July 2028 and a late-2034 arrival at Saturn’s moon Titan. The International Astronomical Union approved the name Ahmakiq Undae for the dune field where Dragonfly will begin its multi-year mission.
Recent tests included bungee-suspended vibration trials and sealing checks to ensure operation in Titan’s dense, cold atmosphere at 1.5 times Earth’s pressure. Over a planned 3.3-year lifespan, the probe will investigate organic dunes and the Selk Crater impact region, extending far beyond ESA’s brief Huygens descent in 2005. The mission’s total cost has risen to $3.35 billion after pandemic-related delays and supply-chain challenges.
Why it matters
The milestones bring NASA closer to a historic multi-year exploration of Titan, a key target for studying prebiotic chemistry.
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