OREANDA-NEWS. Today, April 19, 2021, for the first time in history, a helicopter took off from the surface of Mars. The apparatus completed the program and sat down successfully. This was the first, albeit a very short, controlled flight in the atmosphere of another planet.

The Ingenuity helicopter is an aircraft weighing only 1.8 kilograms with a twin propeller capable of 3000 rpm.

The drone arrived on the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover. On April 4, 2021, he disconnected from the rover and landed on the ground. The first takeoff was scheduled for April 11, but had to be postponed due to identified issues with Ingenuity software.

And today, at about 13:45 Moscow time, the helicopter finally took off from the surface of Mars. He climbed to a height of three meters, spending about three seconds on it. Then the drone hovered at one point for half a minute, after which it descended and landed.

Ingenuity became the first spacecraft to fly in the sky of another planet, after Soviet balloons over Venus. If the drone proves itself well, it could become the first in a whole line of aircraft to study Mars from the air. However, he still has several test flights of increasing complexity ahead.

Before the start "Ingenuity" was admonished by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who repeated his catchphrase "Get to the choppa".