'In an unrecoverable state': NASA confirms MAVEN spacecraft is officially dead after loss of signal behind Mars

Source: LiveScience

'In an unrecoverable state': NASA confirms MAVEN spacecraft is officially dead after loss of signal behind Mars

NASA has confirmed its MAVEN spacecraft is officially dead after losing contact with the probe in December. An anomaly in the probe's rotation speed led to an unexpected loss of power, though the exact cause remains unknown.

By Brandon Specktor
last updated 3 hours ago

After 11 years studying Mars from above, NASA's MAVEN spacecraft is officially dead, the agency announced in a statement on Wednesday (June 3). The culprit: a drained battery, triggered by an as-yet-unknown anomaly.

MAVEN (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) began orbiting Mars on Sept. 21, 2014, on a mission to study the Red Planet's mysterious atmosphere. Circling Mars roughly 6.6 times every Earth day, the spacecraft has facilitated countless discoveries over the last decade — including the first direct observations of a multi-million-year process that has been steadily stripping Mars of its atmosphere.

But on Dec. 6, 2025, NASA unexpectedly lost contact with the probe when it swung behind Mars during a regular orbit. At the time of the probe's expected reemergence, NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) could not detect a signal from MAVEN. (DSN is an international array of radio antennas that connects Earth with various spacecraft).

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Read more: https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/in-an-unrecoverable-state-nasa-confirms-maven-spacecraft-is-officially-dead-after-loss-of-signal-behind-mars