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NASA both paid tribute and made history in the innovation of flight today as the team at NASA watched in hopeful awe as they launched the first Mars helicopter named Ingenuity, achieving the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, with the fabric of the original Wright's Brother's historic Wright Flyer attached.

Although considered a high-risk mission, NASA felt that the $85 million helicopter demo equally offered a high reward. Their ingenuity and conviction now offers all of us a glimpse into the future of space and space travel as the mini 4-pound helicopter took its quick 39 seconds and 10 feet leap into the air. It may seem like a small jump, but it's truly another giant leap for mankind.

The excitement must have unbelievable as real-time video of the short flight took over three excruciating hours to reach ground control before with proof that the preprogrammed flight had succeeded in its mission from more than 170 million miles away.

We will pause here for effect. 170 million miles away.

Can't you just imagine the cheers in the control room as the videos and pictures came in? A new historic NASA mission success.

Here is the live feed straight from NASA on Youtube.

“We’ve been talking so long about our Wright brothers moment, and here it is,” said project manager MiMi Aung, offering a virtual hug to her socially distanced colleagues in the control room as well as those at home because of the coronavirus pandemic," Click2Houston reports. You are welcome to read their full story here.

Deemed a " whole new way to explore alien terrain," the future of space exploration is here, in a 4-pound helicopter, a way to allow us to tour the universe at minimal risk and in the future perhaps to interface with life in a galaxy far, far away.

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