On 19 April 2021 the small helicopter Ingenuity, carried to Mars on NASA's Perseverance rover, rose three metres above the surface of Jezero crater and hovered for 39 seconds. The thin Martian atmosphere, about 1 per cent as dense as Earth's, made flight extremely difficult, so the rotors spun at about 2,400 rpm. Planned as a five-flight experiment, it completed 72 flights over nearly three years, scouting for the rover, before damage to a rotor ended its flying career in January 2024.
Before and after
- from 25 February 2021 to 28 March 20212021 Armenian political crisis
- 9 April 2021Death and funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
- 9 April 2021Death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
- 18 April 2021Origins of European Super League
- 19 April 2021Ingenuity makes the first powered flight on another planet
- from 28 April 2021 to 1 May 20212021 Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan clashes
- 29 April 2021Launch of Tiangong space station
- 30 April 20212021 Meron crowd crush
- 1 May 20212021 Taliban offensive
More in Exploration & discovery
- 2 March 1958The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the crossing
- 27 March 1968Death of Yuri Gagarin
- 14 November 1971Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet
- 25 August 1989Voyager 2 flies past Neptune
- 4 July 1997Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner rover
- 25 August 2012Death of Neil Armstrong
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.