Nasa makes history with helicopter flight on Mars - and sends back these incredible images

Nasa’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has completed the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, the space agency has announced.

The small helicopter successfully took flight on the red planet on Monday, hovering in the air at about 10 feet (three metres), before descending and touching back down on the Martian surface.

The message “Ingenuity has performed its first flight – the first flight of a powered aircraft on another planet” was met by cheers and applause at mission control.

MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter project manager at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said: “We can now say that human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet.”

She added: “We’ve been talking for so long about our Wright brothers moment. And here it is.”

Mars rover will provide support during flight operations

The aircraft is part of a technology demonstration – a project that aims to test a new capability for the first time.

Data from the first flight returned to Earth a few hours after the autonomous test.

Pictures showed a shadow of Ingenuity hovering above the planet’s surface, and a video showed it grounded on the surface.

The Perseverance rover will provide support during flight operations, taking images, collecting environmental data and hosting the base station that enables the helicopter to communicate with mission controllers on Earth.

It tweeted a video of the aircraft on the surface of the planet with its rotors spinning.