Perseverance Update: Ingenuity Is on the Ground!

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Yesterday, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) tweeted this cool photo of the Ingenuity helicopter finally sitting on the surface at Jezero Crater on Mars! The last milestone to take place after this and before Ingenuity's historic first flight will be in the next Martian sol (a.k.a. a day on Mars, which is 24 hours, 39 minutes-long)...when flight controllers at JPL find out whether or not the diminutive aircraft survived its first cold night alone on the ground at the Red Planet. Ingenuity's first flight attempt is scheduled for April 11—with data from this memorable event set to be transmitted back to Earth via the Perseverance rover on April 12 (which marks the 40th anniversary of space shuttle Columbia's first launch on STS-1). Happy Easter!