NASA announced Saturday it pushed back the Ingenuity Mars helicopter's first test flight because of a safety alert during a high-speed spin test of the chopper's rotors.
Ingenuity's high-speed spin test ended abruptly after a monitoring timer designed to detect technical glitches expired prematurely while transitioning the helicopter to its flight mode, NASA said.
The spin was the final major test to make sure the helicopter would be ready for its first experimental flight, which was originally set for early Monday.
The test was meant to see Ingenuity's rotor blades reach flight-like speeds of 2,400 revolutions per minute (rpm) -- about eight times faster than an Earth helicopter.
NASA had previously said the helicopter's flight date might change as engineers make adjustments and pre-flight checks.
"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," Axios quoted NASA as saying in a statement.
The space agency said the Martian helicopter was "safe and healthy" and that it was evaluating its telemetry to understand what happened.
Ingenuity traveled almost 300 million miles to the Red Planet tucked inside the belly of the Perseverance rover.
The helicopter has successfully detached from its underbelly pouch and survived freezing-cold Martian nights on its own, soak up solar power and conducted a series of system checks.
The shoebox-sized helicopter will now remain planted on Mars' surface until at least April 14, NASA said.
When Ingenuity eventually winds up flying, it will mark the first time humans have achieved controlled flight on another planet and pave the way for a whole new technology of exploring other worlds.
