First Flight On Mars

On April 19, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter became the first aircraft to fly on another planet.

Our most recent package details the historic first flight of the 4-lb. robotic rotorcraft, which lasted 39.1 seconds, and its follow-up venture on April 22, and looks ahead to its future test program. The technology lays the groundwork for aerial exploration of Mars, an aeronautical feat given the air density of Mars is less than 1% of the density on Earth. See below for more.

“How do we use aerial mobility in the future on Mars, to help not just robotic exploration, but to help human exploration?”
Ellen Stofan
Smithsonian
May 21, 2018
Spacecraft software for drones, DARPA’s Gremlins on show, gunship launches drone, AACUS in action, HorseFly drone delivers, and recovery parachute for eVTOLs.
May 17, 2018
Simultaneous solicitations for payloads and flight services could return U.S. to the lunar surface as early as 2019.
May 17, 2018
ULA piecing together Vulcan rocket; Israeli Air Force’s transport upgrade; Saab builds Gripen facility in Brazil, and Indonesia receives two more maritime patrollers.
May 16, 2018
SpaceX plans novel test of booster’s reusability by flying it twice in 24 hr.
May 09, 2018
Emiratis, Hazza Al Mansouri and Sultan Al Nayadi, have been selected as the first Arab Nationals to visit the International Space Station.
May 09, 2018
British space companies are being barred from tendering for Galileo contracts as Brexit approaches.
May 09, 2018
The SSL-1300 has been the chassis for 120 communication satellites. Now, one is being designed to fly to Psyche, a metal world in the main asteroid belt.
May 07, 2018
By measuring seismic waves, scientists hope to learn what lies beneath the surface of the red planet.