Historic: First Flight on Another World

SCIENCE

Yesterday, on April 19, 2021, at 07:15 UTC, the NASA’s Ingenuity Team did it. In a moment comparable to the Wright’s Brothers first flight in 1903, a little helicopter, about half a meter high, received the instructions from 287 million kilometers (at the time, Mars-Earth distance varies a lot) away to take off vertically 3 m high, hoover for 40 seconds and then return to original position. They succeeded!

In this video captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover, the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took the first powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS