science division. they sent six years perfecting how to do get the self flying device to climb about ten feet above the surface of mars, hover in place for 30 seconds and then rotate before gently making its landing. it's a challenging mission, especially on mars where the air is so thin, glaze said it's the equivalent of flying at an altitude of 100,000 feet on earth. >> it's three times as high as a commercial aircraft flies. we don't fly up there, there's not enough air to give you lift under the wings. so trying to get your helicopter to fly in that environment is really, really hard. >> reporter: the maiden flight was delayed after a software glitch during a preflight test. since then the device has passed several tests, including a critical spin check of the four rotors last week. >> deploy. >> reporter: the nearly 85 million dollars helicopter

arrived on mars in february. >> about 20 meters off the surface. >> reporter: attached to the belly of the rover. >> touchdown confirmed! >> i believe that ingenuity cannot make things happen, you need that plus perseverance, the hard work that makes a great idea a reality. >> reporter: mimi aung is the project manager for ingenuity, you are looking on, what is going through your mind? >> i will celebrate for the first time then that we did it. all the hours, all the weekends and months of testing and designing different phases, this is what drove us. it's our dream come true. >> reporter: and mimiher fists up in the air in that control room as she waited for the data to come back. history made, 170 million miles away, and people came out to shout in celebration.

ingenuity will have longer flights over the coming all this as nasa continues the search for signs of life on mars. nasa has plans to send a manned mission to mars in 2030. before that, the space agency wants to go back to the moon just three years from now. in the meantime, astronauts continue to work and train on the international space station. david pogue spoke to the crew about what it's life living in orbit. >> reporter: last november, mike hopkins and victor glover took a trip to an amazing travel destination. it was 250 miles away, straight up. >> and resilience rises. >> reporter: 47 hours later. >> capre confirmed. >> reporter: their capsule docked. >> complete. >> at the international spa and, who goes about by ike, near the end of their mission, nasa

offered me a space nerd's dream come true, a live see cat with mike and ike in space. station, this is david pogue. >> we hear you loud and clear. >> reporter: you indicated there's no up or down, so is there any reason that one of you couldn't turn head down? the blood is not rushing to your head, victor? >> not at all, not at all. in fact, it does not seem weird to me until i look at hopper and go, why is hopper up sidedown. >> reporter: ike demonstrated how to get around. he pushes off and there he goes. it's not as futuristic looking as movie space ships. >> we will go from the front end to the back end. >> reporter: the space station football field. the u.s., russia, canada, europe and japan began building it in 1998 and they have never really stopped. the bedrooms are not much bigger than phone booths. >> we have them on the sides but we have them on the ceiling and we have them on the deck.

>> reporter: it's just a bag to keep youin place and a couple of laptops. each astronaut spends two hours a day working out. there's a weight machine, with vacuum tubes instead of of weights, a treadmill, with bu bungee chords. >> we don't have to sit down so there's no seat. >> reporter: there's a reason for all the exercise, zero gravity life does a number on your body. are there things that don't return when you are back on earth? >> there can be. it's hard to not have bone loss, it took years for my 2.5%oss bone density to come back. >> i get a bit of peanut butter. >> reporter: most of the food is ready to eat. but not all of it. i can let go of the cracker and it will stay in the general

location and now i'm tearing open my jelly packet and i now have a cracker of peanut and butter. and because your inner second grader wants s to know. >> a couple of things about the toilet. you can see, there's a can there, that's where the solid waste is collected and the urine is collected in the hose because we he collect urine separately we are able to recycle that urine. >> yes, they recycle their pee, in space, water is a precious resource. >> the station recently celebrated 20 years of being continuously occupied. what do you miss most while you are up wilthere? >> i miss my family. i cannot wait to see my kids at the airport or wherever i bumpin to them first. >> up here, i miss weather, it never changes, it's

>> reporter: yeah. >> hearing hopper sayrended me . >> reporter: peggy witson sometimes misses space. >> after theed to earth and was bed, and i did the lightest float on the bed and thought i would get to the bathroom. and i thought, boy, it will take more than that. >> reporter: she was the commander of the space station. what's the grand total number of days you were in space? >> 665 days. >> reporter: that's the equivalent of a flight to mars, right? >> yes, you can get to mars and back. i'm proof it's doable. >> reporter: 20 years of space station science have yielded

break throughs in many areas. especially medicine. alzheimer's cancer, heart disease and so on. the salmonella that gives you food poisoning, it was stronger in space and they developed a vaccine for that. >> reporter: worms, mice and rats are often on board to help nasa determine the long-term affects of zero gravity. they seem to like it just fine. >> understanding the physics of how things work without gravity, we better understand how things work in gravity. >> reporter: but for the humans on board, seeing our home from space is always spectacular. >> you look out the window and you see planet earth and you look at it and see how thin the atmosphere is and how delicate it is, if you are near a window and you are flying over sahara desert, the whole room

will get the peachy, orange glow. >> this wouindow faces down at e earth and it never gets old. >> reporter: talking to astronauts never gets old either. eventually it was time for them to get back to their mission. thank you, mike did i tell you? i'm going to get the $9.95 plan. the $9.95 plan? what's that? it's the colonial penn plan you see on tv for $9.95 a month. -you mean life insurance? -yes! i'm going to be one of the hundreds of thousands who already have this coverage. sounds pretty popular. it's their number one plan. well, gosh, you make me feel like i'm missing out on something. (laughing) (jonathan) you might be. did you call about the $9.95 plan yet? hi, i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. in just the last ten years alone, over 8 million americans from all walks of life have called to get free information

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a year of social distancing has many people shying away from contact sports. it's got a lot of people taking up tennis. we report on a young player sharing her love of the game. >> reporter: lyndon patterson prepared for the last year of high school tennis pandemic style. working at her home court. there's a couple of rackets out here. >> just a couple. >> reporter: that's where she noticed that more than ten years of her career was piling up. >> i realized that people that i play with all the time must have the same problem or same just rackets sitting on out. >> reporter: turns out she was right. so she created love all tennis, serving up rackets and other equipment to under served communities. patterson has donated more than 2,000 rackets with help from friends and the u.s. tennis association, now you are collecting them on the road too, huh? >> yeah, i can kill two birds with one stone.

i can go and play tennis and work on my game and at the same and picking up boxes. >> hi! >> reporter: we met up with patterson near atlanta as she delivered her latest batch. to an organization for lairs with special needs. >> if it was not for her, i would not know where i would be. >> this one is for you. >> thank you. >> reporter: the usta said that 3 millionnew players took up the game last year. special pops organizer said a that that does not usual ly include players like his? >> they have been around tennis court and few have been invited to be on the court. >> reporter: for this 18-year-old, tennis is more unanimous a game, it's an escape from the affects of the pandemic. >> it helped me express my feelings and help get the craziness off my mind with what is happening. >> reporter: the impact is obvious for the players, the real change happened inside patterson. >> i come out every day and hit

tennis balls and don't think twice aboutee or month. >> reporter: patterson plans to pursue her passion at college with a new found

mark your calendars, thursday is earth day and we end this half hour with a love story that is simply wild, as in wild animals living in your backyard. here is chip reid. >> that is vicki and that is bill over there. >> reporter: for an animal lover, her backyard is paradise. 30 years ago, she came to this wild corner of zimbabwe, with her husband, but she quickly found her mission, saving the local hippos. >> there was a drought and without my intervention, none of the hippos would ha survived. >> reporter: et tof

feeding them through several droughts with the local village. they can be dangerous are, but she said staying safe just takes common sense. >> it's a question of us respect are their space. >> reporter: because of her, the hippos have thrives over three decades 65calves have been born here. drought is not the only threat will, poachers try to kill them for their meat. >> for seven years we were subjected to violence because we were trying stop them from killing the hippos, we did not lose one hippo. >> reporter: you risked your life but it was worth it? >> yes, 100%. i'm totally passionate of what i'm doing nowin saving the hippos. >> reporter: so passionate she wrote a book, a hippo love story, not yet published in the u.s. last year, herlove story went in a direction that surprised even her.

>> reporter: we have a hippo in our garden. >> reporter: a hippo was kicked out of the herd and most disappear in the wild, but not steve. he found karen's backyard and made himself at home with his family. >> i have a wild hippo and he visits the house like this, it's a dream come true for me. when she talks to him he purrs. >> reporter: recently their relationship took another step. she briefly made contact. but she said she will never do that again. >> he is a wild animal and he must stald. like in born free. >> reporter: born free due to her 30 year mission to save the hippos. chip reid. >> that is the news for this tuesday. check back later for cbs this morning, and check in on my podcast, the debrief, there's are two new episodes looking at the sides of the climate change

debate. reporting from the nation's capitol. i'm major garrett. ♪ it's tuesday, april 20th, 2021. this is the "cbs morning news." murder or reasonable force? a jury must now decide the fate of derek chauvin. the final arguments and how one lawmaker's comments may jeopardize the trial. breaking overnight, former vice president walter mondale died. we look back on his political career, including some traditions he started at the white house. moderna's third dose. the vaccinemaker is almost ready with its booster shot. when it will be available to the public. good morning.

good to be with you, i'm anne-marie green.