NASA's experimental helicopter Ingenuity rose into the thin air above the dusty red surface of Mars on Monday, achieving the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet.
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The triumph was hailed as a Wright brothers moment. The mini 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) copter even carried a bit of wing fabric from the Wright Flyer that made similar history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.
It was a brief hop – just 39 seconds and 10 feet (3 meters) – but accomplished all the major milestones.
This first test flight – with more to come by Ingenuity, the next as soon as Thursday – holds great promise as future helicopters could serve as scouts for rovers, and eventually astronauts, in difficult, dangerous places.
