Fiscal Budget Unclear, NASA Postpones Dragonfly Launch

NASA has postponed Dragonfly's launch (photo: Doc. NASA)

JAKARTA - The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program has been delayed again due to budget uncertainty. This time, the program that NASA is delaying is the Dragonfly launch mission.

Dragonfly was supposed to be launched in 2026, but last September, NASA changed the launch schedule to June 2027. Now, NASA has pushed it back a year to July 2028.

From the Spacenews report, NASA Planetary Science Division Director Lori Glaze, who was present at the NASA Outer Planet Assessment Group (OPAG) meeting, said that this schedule continues to change due to the unclear funding budget.

“Due to the enormous uncertainty in FY '24 and FY '25 funding and budgets, the decision was made at the APMC (Agency Program Management Council) to delay official confirmation (of the Dragonfly launch),” Glaze said.

Even though NASA has decided to postpone the Dragonfly launch, the APMC will gather again and discuss this mission after the 2025 fiscal year budget proposal has been released.

For your information, Dragonfly is a multi-rotor vehicle that NASA is developing to fly to Titan, Saturn's moon, by utilizing Titan's dense atmosphere.

NASA had requested funding of 327.7 million US dollars (IDR 5 trillion) for the 2024 fiscal year, 18 percent lower than the previous year. However, the agency suspects that funding for all NASA programs, including Dragonfly, will be reduced.

As a result of this unclear budget, NASA not only postponed the Dragonfly launch mission. Not long ago, NASA announced that they would postpone the Mars Sample Return (MSR). NASA also postponed the New Frontiers and Discovery missions.