I’m 60! Saturday Night Live’s Molly Shannon. Image credit: SNL

 

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has now completed 60 flights since first taking to the skies above the Red Planet on April 19, 2021.

Newly posted imagery show the high-flying mini-chopper scooting skyward on September 26, the date of Ingenuity’s 60th flight.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

That aerial hop covered roughly 1,116 feet (340 meters) in horizontal distance; reaching approximately 52 feet (62 meters) in altitude; and flying for 132.8 seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

Flight log stats

Those 60 aerial assaults by Ingenuity collectively add up to completing 108.8 flying minutes, covering 8.5 miles (13.6 km), and reaching altitudes as high as 65.6 ft (20.0 meters).

Using its navigation camera mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight, black and white imagery shows the view from above the Mars landscape.

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