Mars, the flight of the Ingenuity drone has been postponed for 3 days – Space & Astronomy

We will have to wait a few days longer than expected to witness the first flight to Mars of the Ingenuity drone: NASA has announced with a tweet that the take-off will take place no earlier than April 11, therefore three days later than the date of 8. April announced by the Perseverance mission leaders in last week’s press conference.

Ingenuity, now renamed ‘Ginny’, “is preparing to do something that has never been done before,” writes NASA, while not explaining the reasons that led to reschedule the take-off date. At the moment, in fact, all the operations for the detachment of the aircraft from the Perseverance rover seem to proceed as planned.

The latest snapshots from the Red Planet show Ingenuity still attached to the rover’s ‘belly’, upright and with its ‘legs’ extended, ready for the small 15-centimeter leap that will bring it to rest on the ground. When the Perseverance rover has departed, Ingenuity will recharge under the rays of the Sun and then take off, the first controlled ever performed on a planet other than Earth. He will do so by taking with him a small piece of fabric from the wing of the first airplane of the Wright brothers in 1903. Everything will be amply documented with photos and videos: according to forecasts, the data should arrive on Earth on 12 April.