NASA finally has a new flight date for its Mars helicopter after a bug fix caused a delay. The space agency now expects to fly ingeniously “no earlier than” April 19, at about 3:30 AM to the east. However, don’t worry about staying up all night. A live stream covering the download will not start until 6:15 AM Eastern if all goes well and the post-flight briefing is not scheduled until 14:00 Eastern.
The mission team initially hoped to fly Ingenuity on April 11, but a command sequence issue on April 9 caused it to push the flight back. NASA has just completed a helicopter rotation test.
The flight will only take 30 seconds to check if the plane can fly in the first place. You will have to wait until the four successive flights to see how it traverses the surface of Mars. Even so, it will be a historic moment if everything goes according to plan. Not surprisingly, NASA is cautious as a result – there is a lot of riding in this mission besides the fate of a small drone.
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