NASA Helicopter Flies on Mars

NASA made history Monday with its Ingenuity Mars helicopter making the first-ever powered, controlled flight on another planet.

The whole flight in the Jezero Crater flight zone was expected to last around 40 seconds, with Ingenuity lifting off and climbing at a rate of 3 feet per second, rotating, taking images with a 13-megapixel camera and hovering at 10 feet above the surface.

"Ingenuity has performed its first flight -- the first flight of a powered aircraft on another planet!" flight control was heard saying in an audio broadcast Monday morning by NASA.

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Flight controllers in California confirmed Ingenuity’s brief hop after receiving data via the Perseverance rover, which stood watch more than 200 feet away. Ingenuity hitched a ride to Mars on Perseverance, clinging to the rover’s belly upon their arrival in an ancient river delta in February.

"We've been talking for so long about our Wright brothers moment," Ingenuity Project Manager MiMi Aung added. And here it is."

Fox News’ Julia Musto and the Associated Press contributed to this report.