The Mars helicopter Ingenuity traveled 754 feet at 5.6 mph on its 18th flight on the Red Planet, NASA has confirmed.

The helicopter is moving back toward the rover Perseverance's original landing site as the rover and helicopter prepare to move in another direction.

"The #MarsHelicopter keeps going, going, going!" NASA posted on Twitter late Friday, after the agency confirmed data transmissions from the aircraft's flight two days earlier.

The 18th flight also builds on the Ingenuity's track record for flying in the relatively warmer air of the summer season where it is situated, in Jezero Crater, which is in Mars' northern hemisphere.

Ingenuity's total flight time on Mars has exceeded 32 minutes.

The tiny helicopter was designed to fly only a few minutes over 30 days as a technology demonstration, but has passed eight months in operation.

NASA had lost radio contact -- except for very brief transmissions -- after Ingenuity's Flight 17 on Dec. 5. Hills between the helicopter and the Perseverance rover blocked the link.

But the Mars helicopter's team said in a press release that it was able to downlink more data Dec. 10.

NASA has said the helicopter is in excellent condition. Following the radio interruption, engineers altered the helicopter's communication link to operate in a safe mode during flight, meaning it won't relay as much data, but the signal is stronger.

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NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Reaches a Total of 30 Minutes Aloft
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 17, 2021
The 17th flight of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Dec. 5 pushed the total flight time past the 30-minute mark. The 117-second sortie brought history's first aircraft to operate from the surface of another world closer to its original airfield, "Wright Brothers Field," where it will await the arrival of the agency's Perseverance Mars rover, currently exploring "South Seitah" region of Mars' Jezero Crater. Along with accumulating 30 minutes and 48 seconds of flight time, the trailblazing helico ... read more