{"id":776764,"date":"2024-02-11T15:26:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T20:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=776764"},"modified":"2024-02-11T15:26:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-11T20:26:55","slug":"nasa-regains-contact-with-its-mars-helicopter-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=776764","title":{"rendered":"NASA regains contact with its Mars helicopter : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n An illustration from NASA shows the Ingenuity Mars helicopter on the red planet’s surface near the Perseverance rover, left.
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NASA\/JPL-Caltech via AP<\/p>\n

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An illustration from NASA shows the Ingenuity Mars helicopter on the red planet’s surface near the Perseverance rover, left.<\/p>\n

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NASA\/JPL-Caltech via AP<\/p>\n

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NASA is back in contact with its beloved helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, two days after a communication blackout.<\/p>\n

Communications broke down on Thursday, when the little autonomous rotorcraft was sent on a “quick pop-up vertical flight,” to test its systems after an unplanned early landing during its previous flight, the agency said in a status update on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The Perseverance rover, which relays data between the helicopter and Earth during the flights, showed that Ingenuity climbed to its assigned maximum altitude of 40 feet, NASA said.<\/p>\n

During its planned descent, the helicopter and rover stopped communicating with each other.<\/p>\n