NASA’s Ingenuity drone took the first powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19th.
Ingenuity was attached to the Mars rover Perseverance when it successfully landed on the Red Planet back in February.
The first flight, captured in Hi-Res images below, lasted only 39.1 seconds. It rose vertically about three meters, hovered, rotated in place 96 degrees in a planned maneuver, and landed.
NASA plans several more flights over the upcoming weeks.
Of note: engineers tied a piece of the original 1903 Wright Brothers flyer to Ingenuity. It’s a fitting tribute to a pioneering flight.