NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has been awarded 'Laureate' for its "extraordinary

The prestigious honour recognises the pioneering rotorcraft for its history-making flights on the Red Planet, NASA said in a statement on Tuesday.

When the 1.8 kilogram rotorcraft hovered on Mars for 39.1 seconds on April 19, 2021, it was the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet -- a true Wright brothers moment. Since then, Ingenuity has chalked up 11 flights, with a total distance of just over 2.2 kilometers, reaching an altitude record of 12 meters in its 10th sortie.

"The helicopter has succeeded in ways the Ingenuity team could only have imagined at the outset of this project," said Teddy Tzanetos, Operations Lead, Ingenuity, in the statement.

"The small but mighty team behind this small but mighty rotorcraft is, needless to say, thrilled at its success and honoured for the acknowledgment. We're also eager to see what comes next with the operations demonstration," Tzanetos added.