NASA's helicopter makes first flight on Mars

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has conducted the first helicopter flight on planet Mars, it announced Monday.

"Ingenuity has performed its first flight — the first flight of a powered aircraft on another planet!" NASA wrote on Twitter, adding data that showed the flight was successful.

NASA pushed back the launch of the first flight on the surface of Mars in March. The Ingenuity helicopter, which was attached to the Perseverance rover, landed on the red planet on Feb. 18, was initially planned for a flight on April 8.

Since Mars has one-third of the Earth's gravity and an atmosphere just 1% as dense as the Earth's at the surface, flying Ingenuity in a controlled manner on Mars is more complex than flying on Earth, while energy and temperature change will be issues for the flight, NASA said last month.