NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has flown on Mars, making it the first vehicle to attempt powered flight on another world. "We've been talking so long about our Wright brothers moment on Mars, and here it is," said MiMi Aung at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, speaking from mission control after the flight on 19 April. Early images from NASA that were taken by the Perseverance rover show Ingenuity taking off on its short first test. The craft rose to around 3 metres, pivoted towards the rover and landed after about 30 seconds."To see it now finally happen on Mars, and happen exactly the way that we imagined it, is just a really incredible feeling," said Havard Grip, Ingenuity's chief pilot, during a later press conference. Video taken by the Perseverance rover shows a smooth take-off and landing that looked almost exactly the same as the craft did during testing, said Grip.
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