Nasa’s Mars helicopter completes first ever controlled flight on another planet

Nasa’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has completed the first-ever powered, controlled flight on another planet, the space agency has announced.

Scientists at Nasa have been celebrating the historic moment the small helicopter successfully took flight on the red planet on Monday morning, hovering in the air at around ten feet (three metres), before descending and touching back down on the Martian surface.

The news was met by cheers and applause at mission control, and pictures from the mission showed the craft hovering.

Nasa's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter right after it successfully completed a high-speed spin-up test, captured by the Mastcam-Z instrument on Perseverance on April 16, 2021 picture: AFP PHOTO / NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/HANDOUT

MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter project manager at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said: “We can now say that human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet.”

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