I'm John Batchel, Behind the Black, Bob Zimmerman, the coolest name in all of private rocketry.

Dragonfly.

What are they up to, Bob?

Well, this is not private rocketry, John.

This is a NASA probe being built to go to the Titan, the moon of Saturn.

And it's an interesting probe because it is not a lander or a rover. It is a helicopter,

a rotorcraft. It's going to fly to Titan, use that atmosphere, it's thick atmosphere,

to fly like a helicopter from point to point, and actually even maybe float on the methane or

ethane oceans or lakes of Titan.

It's a very, very radical mission, a very cutting-edge mission.

It's set to launch in 28, which is, by the way, two years behind its original schedule

and arrived sometime around 34, I think, was the date. Yes, 34. It's, as it had originally a $2.1 billion

budget, that has ballooned up to 3.5, 3.3 right now. It is, as I say, it's two years behind

schedule.

The news here is that Dragonfly's engineering team has finished cutting and testing

the rotors for Dragonfly, at least the initial testing.

And not the past testing.

Now, it's not the complete testing, but it's the initial testing.

What I found interesting in this is they, quote,

didn't have time or materials to make test parts or extras.

So every cut had to be right the first time.

In other words, they made no prototypes.

...