Trailblazing Mars Helicopter Attached to Perseverance Rover for July Launch
The little chopper will attempt to pioneer a new type of off-Earth exploration.
By Mike Wall | Senior Space Writer

SPACE.COM – April 12, 2020 | The newest Mars rover’s pioneering passenger has come aboard.

Technicians attached the first-of-its-kind Mars Helicopter to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Monday (April 6) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the robot is being prepped for its upcoming launch. That liftoff will take place during a three-week window that opens on July 17.

Prep work on the rover is officially in high gear. For example, over a four-day span in late March, mission team members finished installing Perseverance’s parachute system and also put on the robot’s six wheels.

The Mars Helicopter, visible in lower center of the image, was attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover at Kennedy Space Center on April 6, 2020. The helicopter will be deployed onto the Martian surface about two-and-a-half months after Perseverance lands.
(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Perseverance’s descent stage was also fueled up last weekend, just before the helicopter integration, NASA officials said.

The descent stage is the rocket-powered sky crane that will lower Perseverance onto the Martian dirt via cables in February 2021. Gassing up the crane was no trivial task; the craft’s four tanks hold a total of 884 lbs. (401 kilograms) of hydrazine propellant, agency officials said.