---
title: "Exactly When And How To Watch NASA Fly A Helicopter On Mars This Sunday As ‘Ingenuity’ Drone Revs-Up"
description: "NASA/JPL-Caltech As reported a few days ago, NASA is about to make aviation history when, on Sunday, it conducts the first controlled, powered and autonomous flight on another planet ... Almost 118 ye"
type: "news"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/33039468.md"
published_at: "2021-04-09T18:53:17.000Z"
---

# Exactly When And How To Watch NASA Fly A Helicopter On Mars This Sunday As ‘Ingenuity’ Drone Revs-Up

> NASA/JPL-Caltech As reported a few days ago, NASA is about to make aviation history when, on Sunday, it conducts the first controlled, powered and autonomous flight on another planet ... Almost 118 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s historic first flight at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, NASA’s Mars Helicopter—nicknamed “Ingenuity”—will perform a short flight from its its 33-by-33-foot/10-by-10-meter airfield in Jezero Crater on Mars ... MORE FROM FORBESMars Helicopter: How To Follow Online This Week As NASA's $80 Million 'Ingenuity' Drone Attempts A Unique FlightBy Jamie CarterWhen is Ingenuity’s maiden flight?NASA has set the time for Sunday, April 11, at 12:30 p.m.

As reported a few days ago, NASA is about to make aviation history when, on Sunday, it conducts the first controlled, powered and autonomous flight on another planet.

Almost 118 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s historic first flight at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, NASA’s Mars Helicopter—nicknamed “Ingenuity”—will perform a short flight from its its 33-by-33-foot/10-by-10-meter airfield in Jezero Crater on Mars.

NASA has now confirmed the flight time and the exact time that the data will be picked-up back on Earth. This is going to be historic.

MORE FROM FORBESMars Helicopter: How To Follow Online This Week As NASA's $80 Million 'Ingenuity' Drone Attempts A Unique FlightBy Jamie Carter

## When is Ingenuity’s maiden flight?

NASA has set the time for Sunday, April 11, at 12:30 p.m. local Mars solar time. That translates to 10:54 p.m. EDT/7:54 p.m. PDT, and 3:54 a.m. BST on Monday April 12 for those in the UK.

In the hours before that moment an antenna on the Perseverance rover—parked 215 feet/65 meters away—will receive the flight instructions from Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network. “Percy” will then send them to “Ginny.”

A minute before the flight the drone will wiggle its blades—something it did successfully a few days before (see below)—adjust the pitch of its rotor blades, and then take 12 seconds to rev-up to 12,537 rpm.

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Then it will lift-off. It should take six seconds to climb to its maximum height—10 feet—and it will hover for about 30 seconds.

After snapping some images it will descend, touch down and send its data to Perseverance, who will relay it to Earth.

MORE FROM FORBESA Piece Of The Wright Flyer Is About To Fly On MarsBy Kiona N. Smith

## When will the flight be confirmed?

Since radio signals will take 15 minutes and 27 seconds to travel the 173 million miles/278 million kilometers between Mars and Earth this weekend, there’s no way to follow any of this live.

But you can follow it as-live by following online as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California receives the data back from the Martian surface confirming the flight.

## Where and when to watch Ingenuity’s maiden flight

The big moment is expected to happen on Monday, April 12, 2021 at 04:15 a.m. EDT/01:15 a.m. PDT and 09:15 a.m BST. About 45 minutes before that, NASA TV will air live coverage with commentary.

The key social media accounts to watch for all this are:

Twitter: @IngenuityNasa @NASAPersevere and @NASAMars

Facebook: NASA, NASA Mars and NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover

YouTube: NASA TV

In the hours afterwards you can expect to see some black-and-white images, followed by some color images, taken by Ingenuity during its flight. We’ll also get to see some basic video and higher-resolution photos taken of the flight by the Perseverance rover.

“From day one of this project our team has had to overcome a wide array of seemingly insurmountable technical challenges,” said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at JPL. “And here we are, safely on Mars, on the eve of our first flight attempt. We got this far with a never-say-die attitude, a lot of friends from many different technical disciplines, and an agency that likes to turn far-out ideas into reality.”

*Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.*

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> **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.
