NASA’s MAVEN Mars spacecraft suddenly loses contact with Earth
NASA engineers are working to restore communication with the long-running Mars orbiter after contact was unexpectedly lost earlier this month.
NASA has uncovered spots on rocks, created or modified by water, on Mars in the past.
NASA is working to reestablish communication with MAVEN, the space agency’s decade-old Mars orbiter, after it suddenly lost contact with Earth this week.
In an update Tuesday, NASA said ground stations detected the loss of signal on Dec. 6, when MAVEN was emerging from the far side of Mars. The spacecraft had been operating normally before it passed behind the planet, but once it came back into view, NASA’s global network of radio antennas, known as the Deep Space Network, did not regain a signal.
NASA's Deep Space Network sending a signal to MAVEN on Dec. 11, 2025. (Image: NASA DSN)
“The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation,” NASA said in a statement.
MAVEN, short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, has been orbiting Mars since 2014. The mission studies the planet’s upper atmosphere and how it interacts with solar activity and space weather — key data for understanding how Mars lost much of its atmosphere over time.
An artist rendering shows MAVEN in orbit around Mars. (Image credit: NASA/GSFC)
In addition to its scientific work, MAVEN serves as a crucial communications relay for NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, transmitting data between the Martian surface and Earth. Losing contact with MAVEN could temporarily affect how data is routed from the rovers, though NASA has not reported any impacts to surface operations.
Despite its age, MAVEN is still the newest operational NASA orbiter at Mars. The agency’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have each been circling the Red Planet for more than 20 years.
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