Watch: Gripen fighter jets escort PM Modi's plane as it enters Swedish airspace
Watch: Gripen fighter jets escort PM Modi's plane as it enters Swedish airspace
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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT.
The space agency had originally planned the flight for April 11 but postponed it over a software issue that was identified during a planned high-speed test of the aircraft's rotors.
The $85 million helicopter demo was considered high risk, yet high reward.
“Each world gets only one first flight,” project manager MiMi Aung noted earlier this month. Speaking on a NASA webcast early Monday, she called it the “ultimate dream.”
Aung and her team had to wait more than three excruciating hours before learning whether the pre-programmed flight had succeeded 178 million miles (287 million kilometers) away.
(AP)
Watch: Gripen fighter jets escort PM Modi's plane as it enters Swedish airspace
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