NASA Mars helicopter’s flight delayed due to technical issue

NASA will delay the historic flight of their Ingenuity helicopter — set to launch on Mars –until at least April 14, the agency said in a statement Saturday.

The agency said an issue arose during a rotor test. “During a high-speed spin test of the rotors on Friday, the command sequence controlling the test ended early due to a ‘watchdog’ timer expiration. This occurred as it was trying to transition the flight computer from ‘Pre-Flight’ to ‘Flight’ mode,” the statement read. “The helicopter is safe and healthy and communicated its full telemetry set to Earth.”