First flight on Mars

Ingenuity has made the first powered flight on another world. Today, the robot rotorcraft — part of NASA’s Perseverance mission — lifted off from the surface of Mars for 40 seconds. Ingenuity’s counter-rotating carbon-fibre blades spun at more than 2,400 revolutions per minute to lift the craft 3 metres into the air. The US$85-million drone hovered there, and then, in a planned manœuvre, turned 90 degrees and descended safely back to the Martian surface. Software issues that kept the helicopter from transitioning into flight mode had delayed the flight from 11 April.