NASA to Host Briefing to Preview First Mars Helicopter Flights by JPL’s ‘Ingenuity’

With members of the projects laying out the steps necessary before the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter attempts its historic test flights, NASA will hold a virtual media briefing at 1:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. PDT) Tuesday, March 23, to discuss upcoming activities for the helicopter. 

The JPL teams operating Ingenuity and NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover have chosen the flight zone where the helicopter will attempt the first powered, controlled flights on another planet.

Ingenuity arrived on Mars on Feb. 18, attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover.  

The briefing will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website and will livestream on multiple agency social media platforms, including the YouTube and Facebook channels for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Briefing participants include:

• Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
• Bobby Braun, director for planetary science, JPL
• J. (Bob) Balaram, Ingenuity chief engineer, JPL
• Håvard Grip, Ingenuity chief pilot, JPL
• Farah Alibay, Perseverance integration lead for Ingenuity, JPL