NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Survives Wild Flight

Despite the wild tailspin, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter managed to stay in the air and land safely on the surface of the red planet within about 16 feet of the intended landing location, NASA said on Friday.

The global space agency revealed that Ingenuity suffered an image processing issue at an altitude of 10 meters but “muscled through” the final 65 meters of its 215-meter journey and landed safely.

In a statement released this morning, NASA said: "on its sixth test flight on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter suffered a navigation timing error that sent it into a wild tailspin over the Martian surface."

"The video of the incident shows the helicopter wildly lurching in the air towards the end of its flight," the statement added.

According to the global space agency, it was the first issue the experimental helicopter Ingenuity, encountered since its historic first flight over the surface of Mars planet in April.

Later on, the renowned space agency stated that Ingenuity managed to land safely and was ready for its next flight. “Just keep flying,”

Lately, NASA has decided to extend the Ingenuity’s high-flying mission on the red plant to test the operational capabilities of its smart helicopter, which completed its first powered flight on Mars less than two weeks ago. Since then, the device has completed a total of four flights.