They were going to test it out while the rover remained nearby by necessity, but if even if the helo didn’t break or crash, the rover was going to be moving on for its own mission.
They didn’t expect that the helicopter should do so well that it would be able to follow the rover and land at new sites.
With this lil’ “hovercraft” performing way beyond expectations, the author might have been taking dramatic license by using “soar” .
I remember them saying that they were going to “crash” it to study something or another (on the 5th flight?)..
Did they finally realize that they should keep it going as long as it was working?