NASA made history yet again on Monday, April 19, at 03:34 EDT (07:34 UTC), by conducting the first controlled flight of an aircraft on Mars, the iconic space organization confirmed via a live video link to mission control on NASA TV.
Thanks to onboard data and images sent via powerful X-band transmissions, NASA confirmed that its miniature helicopter, Ingenuity, slowly rose to an altitude of three meters (9.8 feet) above the surface of Mars, hovered for 30 seconds, and then descended to land on its four legs.