The Space Foundation, a non-profit organization, founded in 1983, honored the team behind NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter as they won the prestigious 2021 John L. "Jack" Swigert Jr. Award for Space Exploration, according to Digital Trends.
Space Foundation gives this prestigious award every year to those who have contributed extraordinary accomplishments in space exploration and discovery.
California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is responsible for NASA's 2021 Mars mission, announced the news via Twitter on Tuesday, June 15.
The Ingenuity helicopter has made history in April this year after becoming the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet.
Cheers for the #MarsHelicopter team! 🎉 The Ingenuity crew has won the @SpaceFoundation’s 2021 John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr. Award for Space Exploration, highlighting the rotorcraft's historic achievements on the Red Planet. https://t.co/c5Zq41K4sJ pic.twitter.com/hh5lbVf33P
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) June 15, 2021
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Awarded for History-Making Achievements
Space Foundation announced in their news release that the NASA JPL Mars Ingenuity Flight Team is the winner of the prestigious 2021 John L. "Jack" Swigert Jr. Award for Space Exploration for its historical milestone in aviation and aeronautics.
Its flight tests have allowed the observation of Mars from an aerial perspective and enabled the collection of data while flying in a challenging environment.
Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor shared that the NASA JPL team continues to raise the bar when it comes to extraordinary accomplishments in space exploration and discovery even after becoming a multiple-time recipient of the award. They not only made a unique history on Earth but accomplished something that is beyond anything.
The news release stated that the award would be presented on August 23, 2021, during the 36th Space Symposium's opening ceremony that will be held at The Broad moor in Colorado Springs.
The foundation's goal is to advocate for innovation that will create a better life on Earth. It recognizes achievements by a space agency, a consortium of organizations in the field of space exploration. The award honors the late astronaut John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., the module pilot for Apollo 13 mission.
It was a mission aborted when an oxygen tank ruptured en route to the Moon. The world watched as NASA worked against the clock and overcame tremendous odds to return the crew safely to the Earth.
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter flight team at JPL in Southern California has overcome many obstacles in the past along their way to achieving historical milestones for humankind as the very first powered, controlled flight on another planet, according to NASA.
Its flight tests were full of unknowns, especially when conducting flight tests on the Red Planet, which has an extremely thin atmosphere with only 1% pressure and one-third of the gravity of Earth.
On April 19, 2021, it made history when it climbed to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) and hovered for 30 seconds before descending.
To date, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter has flown a total of seven times. From being a technology demonstration, Ingenuity has transitioned to become an operations demonstration that shows how aerial scouting could help future explorations of the Red Planet and other worlds.
Previous Swigert Award winners include the InSight-Mars Cube One joint project teams in 2020, the Dawn mission in 2019, and the Cassini mission team in 2018.
RELATED ARTICLE: Ingenuity Survives 7th Flight; NASA's Mars Helicopter Landed in a Brand New Spot!
Check out more news and information on Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Science Times.
