Nasa Robotic Lander "Mighty Eagle" - First Free Flight Test

Mighty Eagle during free flight. Credit: NASA/MSFC/Dennis Olive

NASA's robotic lander Mighty Eagle completed a successful free flight test September 5.

The prototype, using its onboard autonomous flight software, moved to an altitude of 100 feet, found its target and descended gently to a controlled landing.

The craft is named after a character from the popular Angry Birds game, and is a test bed for technologies that may be used to build robotic landers for the Moon, asteroids and other destinations in our Solar System.

"The Mighty Eagle had a great flight, fulfilling the objectives we had for this test - finding and landing on its target using a closed-loop system," said Dr Greg Chavers, lead engineer for the project.

Marshall Space Flight Center engineers Logan Kennedy, right, and Adam Lacock check out the lander prototype. Credit: NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton

After a series of tethered flights during 2011 and 2012, the Mighty Eagle had its first "free" flight on August 8, 2012.

That test met with its targets and was followed by another successful untethered flight on August 16 when the lander hovered at an altitude of about 30 feet, identified its target landing site 21 feet away, moved sideways and descended safely.

The test flight lasted 32 seconds.

An infrared view of the "Mighty Eagle" taking off from the pad. (NASA/MSFC)

Read more about the NASA Mighty Eagle here, at the Lunar Quest mission website.