NASA has regained contact with its small helicopter on Mars, the US space agency said on Saturday, after an unexpected malfunction raised fears that the hard-working rover was finally doomed.

Ingenuity, a drone approximately 0.5 meters long, reached Mars with the Perseverance rover in 2021, becoming the first powered vehicle to fly autonomously on another planet. Data from the helicopter is being transmitted to Earth via Perseverance, but communications were suddenly cut off during a test flight on Thursday, the 72nd since Ingenuity’s launch to Mars.

“Good news today,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) tweeted late Saturday on X, formerly Twitter.

The agency said it eventually managed to establish contact with the helicopter and ordered Perseverance to “conduct extended listening sessions on the Ingenuity signal.”

“The team is working on new data to better understand the unexpected loss of communications during Flight 72,” the agency added.

NASA previously reported that Ingenuity gained 40 feet (12 meters) of altitude during Flight 72, “a rapid vertical flight to test helicopter systems following an unplanned early descent during the previous flight.”

But during landing, “communication between the helicopter and the rover terminated prematurely, even before landing,” he reported. JPL said in a statement Friday that Perseverance was temporarily “out of Ingenuity’s direct line of sight, but the team may consider approaching for visual inspection.”

In response to a post asking whether Ingenuity could fly again on the X, JPL said Saturday that “the team must evaluate new data before this can be determined.”

NASA has lost contact with the helicopter before, including for two months last year. Weighing just 1.8 kilograms, the mini-rotor far exceeded its initial goal of making five flybys around the Red Planet in 30 days.

In total, he covered just over 10 miles (17 kilometers) and climbed to an altitude of 79 feet (24 meters). Its durability has proven impressive, especially considering it must survive freezing cold Martian nights heated by solar panels that charge its batteries during the daylight hours.

Working with Perseverance, it acts as an aerial scout, helping its wheeled companion search for possible signs of ancient microbial life.