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
Jul 05, 2013
The 2013 Global Space and Satellite Forum got under way today at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Attracting global experts from across 30 countries, the event looked at the blossoming space industry in the Middle East and how satellites have an important role to play in terms of earth observation and communication.
Jul 01, 2013
Budget squeeze adds to mounting pressure on commercial crew tests
Jul 01, 2013
It is a golden instrument, in more ways than one. NIRcam, the Near-Infrared Camera for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is wrapped in a gold insulating foil, the better to maintain its operating temperature of 35K (-397F). But it also will play a golden role for the three other instruments on the $8 billion mission, which is to put astronomy's largest orbiting observatory into service in 2018.
Jun 24, 2013
President Barack Obama's Brandenburg Gate call to eliminate up to a third of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has few ardent champions. And the remaining discontent may matter, since the cuts aren't likely to materialize while Obama is still in office. Republicans denounce the plan to reduce beyond the New Start treaty's limit of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, and promise to set up procedural roadblocks in the Senate.
Jun 24, 2013
NASA issues a 'grand challenge' to boost asteroid-capture idea
Jun 24, 2013
The search is on as ULA is probed for allegedly blocking RD-180 sales