Watch NASA's helicopter make its historic first flight on Mars

Go Ingenuity, go!
 By 
Kellen Beck
 on 
Watch NASA's helicopter make its historic first flight on Mars
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NASA's Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, made history with its first Martian flight Monday.

Its travel buddy, Perseverance the rover, caught the flight on video.

The video shows Ingenuity hovering in the middle of its first test flight 10 feet above the Martian surface, the first time that humans have successfully flown an aircraft on an alien planet. Ingenuity stayed airborne for nearly 40 seconds in the challengingly thin atmosphere, an impressive feat of engineering.

Ingenuity is expected to perform up to four more flights over the next 30 sols (Mars days) while Perseverance sits at a comfortable distance documenting the process.

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Kellen Beck

Kellen is a science reporter at Mashable, covering space, environmentalism, sustainability, and future tech. Previously, Kellen has covered entertainment, gaming, esports, and consumer tech at Mashable. Follow him on Twitter @Kellenbeck


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