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
Sep 01, 2016
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded at 9:07 a.m. Sept. 1 on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral as it was preparing for a prelaunch test.
Sep 01, 2016
NASA is readying its surviving Space Shuttle Main Engines for a last hurrah as the power plant for its new heavy-lift Space Launch System.
Aug 31, 2016
The near-term focus for the program is to get the Space Launch System off the ground—without and with humans on top.
Aug 31, 2016
The heavy-lift Space Launch System will be a big vehicle, and NASA is starting to turn out some big pieces—and ground infrastructure—for its first flight in 2018.
Aug 31, 2016
NASA is using a massive friction-stir welding tool at the Michoud Assembly Facility to build its first flight structure for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS).
Aug 26, 2016
In this week’s Washington Outlook column: the GAO dings the Air Force on A-10 retirement plans, and Maryland Space Business Roundtable attendees weigh in on the U.S. presidential election.
Aug 26, 2016
A 1957 revelation that the U.S. was tracking Soviet missile launches from a secret radar in Turkey has its roots in sleuthing of students from Kettering Grammar School in the UK.
Aug 25, 2016
A program begun in 2008 results in testing of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.’s fattest solid-propellant motor so far.