NASA Delays First Flight of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to No Earlier Than April 11 Written 2 April 2021
Artist’s concept of the Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, slated to launch on NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission in July 2020. | NASA/JPL-Caltech
SPACE reports that NASA has pushed the earliest date for its Ingenuity helicopter to make its first flight on Mars from April 8 to April 11. NASA’s JPL said in a tweet that Ingenuity “is preparing to do something that’s never been done: controlled, powered flight on another planet. Takeoff is now slated for no earlier than April 11, with data arriving on Earth on April 12.” The helicopter, “located underneath the rover, has been unfurling from Perseverance’s belly, preparing for the” flight. On March 21, the Perseverance rover “dropped a protective shield, which helped the helicopter to endure the perilous descent through Mars’ atmosphere.”
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