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
Feb 19, 2025
An alternate proposal tests the limits of the agency’s use of commercial services.
Feb 18, 2025
Threats to spacecraft are proliferating as the domain becomes of growing importance to militaries around the world.
Feb 18, 2025
America remains a hotbed of space innovation, but worries mount over China’s rapid advances.
Feb 12, 2025
Veteran astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams launched to the ISS aboard a Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024.
Feb 11, 2025
Apollo 17's commander once called the dust “probably one of our greatest inhibitors to a nominal operation on the Moon.”
Feb 07, 2025
President Trump’s first administration launched the Artemis program to send humans back to the Moon. His second term may pivot the focus to Mars.
Feb 05, 2025
The image on the cover of the February 3, 1958 issue of Aviation Week, shows the weather map of North America as it would be transmitted by television by satellite 4,000 mi. over Amarillo, Texas.
Feb 03, 2025
Airbus’ high-altitude pseudo-satellite spinoff company Aalto has completed its first flight from its new base in Kenya. Tony Osborne reports.