60 Minutes: Season 53, Episode 31

53 - 31: Ingenuity and Perseverance | The Ritchie Boys

Ingenuity and Perseverance - How NASA's Mars rover landing almost went terribly wrong. NASA wasn't sure if Perseverance could slow itself down as it barreled toward Mars at over 300 miles per hour earlier this year. Anderson Cooper reports on the missions carried out on the red planet by the rover and its special cargo, the tiny helicopter Ingenuity, to search for ancient life on Mars. He also covers the painstaking process of launching the helicopter and the extraordinary images the two have already sent back to Earth.

The Ritchie Boys - Ritchie Boys were a secret U.S. unit bolstered by German-born Jews who helped the Allies beat Hitler. They were responsible for uncovering more than half the combat intelligence on the Western Front during World War II. For the many German-born Jews in their ranks, defeating the Nazis was heartbreakingly personal. Jon Wertheim tells this little-known story of the Jews who escaped the Nazis during World War II and returned to fight Hitler as part of a secret American military intelligence group trained in espionage and psychological warfare. This is a double-length segment.