On what date did the Ingenuity helicopter first fly on Mars?

Ingenuity first flew on Mars on April 19, 2021. Its brief hovering flight was the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another planet, making the small helicopter a milestone in aviation and space exploration.

The flight took place at Wright Brothers Field in Jezero Crater, where NASA’s Perseverance rover had landed two months earlier. Ingenuity climbed to about 3 meters, hovered for roughly 39 seconds, rotated in place, and landed. Because Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, its rotor blades had to spin rapidly to generate enough lift.

Ingenuity was carried to Mars beneath Perseverance and was designed as a technology demonstration, with an original goal of five flights within 30 Martian sols. It far exceeded that plan, completing 72 flights before its mission ended in January 2024. The date is sometimes confused with February 18, 2021, which was Perseverance’s landing date, or April 20, a date that can appear because of time-zone and reporting differences.