1ST FLIGHT OF INGENUITY HELICOPTER ON MARS, Apr 19, 2021, Mars

Update, April 17:  NASA has set Monday, April 19, as the new date for Ingenuity’s first flight.  The flight will take place at 3:15 am ET. Data will begin arriving at JPL at 6:15 am ET when a livestream will begin.  A post-flight briefing is planned for 2:00 pm ET.

Update, April 12:  NASA says it needs to send Ingenuity a software update, which will take some time.  It will set a new date for the first flight sometime next week.

Update, April 10:  Today NASA announced that the test will be postponed until no earlier than April 14 because of anomalous data received following a test last night.

Original entry: As of March 31, NASA-JPL is planning the first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars for April 11.  Earlier it had tentatively set for April 8, but JPL warned the date could move forward or back depending on a variety of factors.  It  could change again, too.

If it does fly on April 11, the data would arrive back at Earth on April 12. Coincidentally that is the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the human spaceflight era — the day Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space.  As well as the 40th anniversary of the first flight of the U.S. space shuttle.

Come fly with us. #MarsHelicopter is preparing to do something that’s never been done: controlled, powered flight on another planet. Takeoff is now slated for no earlier than April 11, with data arriving on Earth on April 12. https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWE pic.twitter.com/JSep5lcKhR

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 1, 2021

Ingenuity arrived at Mars in the “belly” of the Mars Perseverance rover.  It will be the first vehicle to make a powered flight on another world.