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After nearly three years of cruising the skies over Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has been grounded for good due to rotor damage. The end of the historic mission, which constituted the first time that an autonomous aircraft had ever taken flight on another world, was announced by the space agency on Thursday. Arriving on the Red Planet aboard the Perseverance rover in February of 2021, Ingenuity far exceeded NASA’s expectations as it was only meant to fly five times as a proverbial proof of concept for possible future projects. However, it held up remarkably well and ultimately performed a staggering 72 flights since its initial takeoff in April of 2021.
More on this story at the Coast to Coast AM website.
