Project manager MiMi Aung raises her fists in triumph standing under JPL's motto: 'Dare Mighty Things.' The motto emblazoned on their wall reads, 'Dare Mighty Things.' Ingenuity engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory burst into applause as the first video comes in from Mars, showing the small helicopter flying in the thin martian atmosphere. A sharp black-and-white still image, taken by a camera aboard Ingenuity, showed the helicopter's shadow on the surface of Mars, its rotors sharply defined.Īs each image appeared on a screen at the front of the control room, the engineering team cheered and applauded with evident relief. Moments later, initial images were displayed, including a short video shot by Perseverance showing the small helicopter lifting off, hovering and setting down. 'Altimeter data confirms that Ingenuity has performed the first flight of a powered aircraft on another planet!' he said as engineers burst into cheers and applause. Peering intently at his display, JPL's 'pilot,' Håvard Grip, announced the results, confirming Ingenuity 'performed spin up, take off, climb, hover, descent, landing, touchdown and spin down.' The data began showing up on computer screens at JPL just after 6:30 a.m. The Ingenuity helicopter, using a camera pointed straight down, captures an image of its shadow on the surface of Mars, in between tracks from the Preseverance rover.

Once finally on its way, the telemetry took nearly 16 minutes to cross the 178-million-mile gulf between Mars and Earth.

Like the historic 1903 flight, Ingenuity's was dramatic, especially given it took three hours for data confirming a successful takeoff and landing to make its way to Earth, relayed through NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. To honor the pioneering aviators, NASA named Ingenuity's test site in Jezero Craer 'Wright Brothers Field.' With the Perseverance rover looking on from a safe distance, Ingenuity climbed 10 feet straight up, hovered, turned in place and then landed to complete a test flight spanning just 40 seconds or so.įemale engineer makes history with Mars test flight of Ingenuity helicopter 01:31Īppropriately enough, the helicopter carried a postage stamp-size piece of fabric from the Wright brothers' first biplane.

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity is seen during its first flight on the planet in this still image taken from a video on April 19, 2021. Tipping the scales at just 4 pounds - 1.5 pounds in the lower gravity of Mars - Ingenuity's counter-rotating 4-foot-long rotors, spinning at more than 2,500 rpm, were commanded to change their pitch, 'biting' deeper into the thin atmosphere for a liftoff from the floor of Jezero Crater around 3:30 a.m.

NASA celebrates success of Ingenuity's historic first flight on Mars 04:39Īfter overcoming an earlier software glitch, NASA's $80 million Ingenuity helicopter spun up its carbon-composite rotors and lifted off the dusty surface of Mars early Monday to become the first aircraft to fly on another planet, a 'Wright brothers moment' that could pave the way to future interplanetary aircraft.

Mars ingenuity helicopter