American space agency NASA says it has expanded its Mars helicopter mission after the experimental aircraft successfully completed several test flights. The helicopter, named Ingenuity, made history last month by becoming the first aircraft to perform a powered, controlled flight on another planet. Mission controllers say the helicopter has performed above expectations in all four of its test flights so far. While many test flights were carried out on Earth, Ingenuity was launched to demonstrate that a small helicopter could actually fly on Mars. During its fourth flight on April 30, NASA said Ingenuity reached a height of about 5 meters and beat the aircraft’s speed and distance records from earlier flights. Now that the mission has successfully met its first goals, NASA says it expanded the project to an “operational demonstration.” This new part of the mission is expected to test Ingenuity’s ability to explore different parts of the planet from the air. In its past flights, Ingenuity has been taking off and landing near NASA’s Perseverance explorer, or rover. The rover is on its own mission to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. It was carrying Ingenuity when it landed at the planet’s Jezero Crater in February. NASA’s first stated goals with Ingenuity were to complete a series of flights to see how high and how far the aircraft could progress in each test. The demonstration flights were expected to end in early May.