Perseverance launch — with a helicopter aboard

Carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, which went on to fly 72 times — the first powered flight on another planet.

The moment of Perseverance launch — with a helicopter aboard: https://nowsky.org/e/perseverance-launch — opens at the right place and time, replayable, no login.

Available views: Orbit ✓ · Sky — (not visible in the sky)

The story

On 30 July 2020 Perseverance left for Mars on an Atlas V, in the middle of the pandemic, with a 1.8 kg helicopter named Ingenuity strapped to its belly — a technology demonstrator whose success criterion was five flights, to see whether flying in Mars's one-percent atmosphere was possible at all.

It landed in Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021. To Curiosity's sky crane it added terrain-relative navigation, choosing its own landing spot during descent by recognising rocks and cliffs with its cameras. For the first time the landing was filmed by the lander's own cameras and sent home.

On 19 April Ingenuity rose 3 m for 39.1 seconds — the first powered flight on another planet, compared to the Wright brothers' moment, and it carried a scrap of fabric from the 1903 Flyer. The five-flight goal ended at 72 flights and 17 km; a broken rotor ended the mission in January 2024.

Perseverance is filling sample tubes in Jezero's ancient river delta; the plan to bring them to Earth is still being designed. Another payload, MOXIE, ran sixteen times making oxygen from the carbon-dioxide air — about a tree's worth per hour. The orbit replay shows the seven-month cruise.

Why it matters

Perseverance is the first step of Mars sample return. For fifty years since Viking the question of Martian life has been stuck at the limits of a rover laboratory; samples in Earth laboratories allow isotopic dating and microstructural analysis. The tubes are filled — what remains is the means and the budget to bring them home.

Ingenuity proved that aviation on another world is possible. Data from its 72 flights fed directly into the design of Dragonfly, due to land on Titan in 2034, and into the helicopter options for the sample-return plan.

MOXIE's oxygen production was the first demonstration of using local resources for a crewed Mars mission. If the oxidiser for a return rocket and breathing oxygen can be made on Mars, tens of tonnes need not be shipped from Earth.

How to watch

Perseverance sits on the delta in Jezero Crater (18.4° N, 77.5° E) and cannot be seen from Earth; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter periodically photographs the rover and the remains of Ingenuity from above.

Select Mars in the sky view for its altitude, bearing, rise time and apparent size from your location. The next opposition is February 2027, when Mars brightens to magnitude −1.

The orbit replay draws the Hohmann transfer from the July 2020 launch to arrival in February 2021; launched in the same kind of window as Curiosity (2011), the two tracks can be compared side by side.

See this for yourself — replay the moment in the orbit view

Background

Jezero was a lake 3.5 billion years ago, and the delta laid down by the river that fed it is preserved. The rover began on the volcanic crater floor in 2021, climbed onto the delta in 2023 and has been exploring the crater rim since 2025.

Mars Sample Return was designed by NASA and ESA for a 2033 return, but costs grew to 11 billion dollars and the plan went into review in 2024. As of 2026 a reduced version is under study and no return date is set; China's Tianwen-3 is being pursued separately with a 2031 target.

Aboard Perseverance are a chip engraved with 10.9 million names and a plaque honouring COVID-19 healthcare workers. The pattern of its landing parachute hid the words "Dare Mighty Things" in binary code.

Perseverance’s landing was the first recorded by a microphone. The rush of wind during descent and the first sounds from the surface — faint breeze and the rover’s own mechanical noises — were sent to Earth, and the microphone was later used to estimate rock hardness from the sound of the laser striking stone. Mars’s thin air carries sound more weakly than Earth’s and loses high frequencies quickly, but these recordings were the first account of what a person standing on Mars would hear.

FAQ

How many times did Ingenuity fly?

72 flights totalling 17 km, far past the five-flight goal, until a rotor broke in January 2024.

When do the samples come to Earth?

Not yet decided — the sample-return plan went into review in 2024 and a reduced version is under study.

What did MOXIE do?

It ran sixteen times making oxygen from Mars's carbon-dioxide air — about a tree's worth per hour.

How does it differ from Curiosity?

Same chassis, plus sample caching, terrain-relative navigation, a helicopter and the oxygen experiment.

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Times and figures are approximate — verify with official sources when planning travel. Simulation uses J2000 mean elements.