NASA's helicopter Ingenuity delays first test flight until next week

The Mars helicopter named Ingenuity is an assistant to the Mars rover Perseverance. It was supposed to go on its first flight this Sunday on the Red Planet.

But on Saturday, NASA announced that the flight has been delayed. 

"We're now targeting no earlier than Wednesday, April 14, for our Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter’s attempt at the first powered, controlled flight on another planet."

It's the first helicopter on Mars and the first-ever flight on Mars, a lot of firsts for NASA with a busy year and big plans in the making and a lot of pre-planning.

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"Design, test, design, learn from the rest, repeat until success," said Mimi Aung, Ingenuity project manager. "So this little four-pound vehicle to date as we speak has been surviving on its own, the cold nights, it’s been surviving on its own. It’s recharging its battery throughout the day. It has been communicating to a space station that resides on the rover, ultimately exchanging information with us, and we have fully confirmed that it has enough energy and power to perform this flight at Mars."

Ingenuity has up to 31 days of planned flights to take snapshot images and collect valuable data from the air for research back here on Earth.