
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft that has orbited Mars for more than a decade.
Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend. NASA said this week that it was working fine before it went behind the red planet. When it reappeared, there was only silence.
Launched in 2013, Maven began studying the upper Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind once reaching the red planet the following year. Scientists ended up blaming the sun for Mars losing most of its atmosphere to space over the eons, turning it from wet and warm to the dry and cold world it is today.
Maven also has served as a communication relay for NASA’s two Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.
Engineering investigations are underway, according to NASA.
NASA has two other spacecraft around Mars that are still active: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2005, and Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
LATEST POSTS
- 1
Why won't NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts land on the moon when they get there? - 2
Senegal limits foreign trips for officials as the fallout from Iran war deepens - 3
Huge solar flare no threat to Artemis 2 astronaut launch to the moon, NASA says - 4
Transcript: Scott Gottlieb on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Dec. 7, 2025 - 5
Olivia Rodrigo announces 3rd album, 'You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,' set to debut in June
Top 20 Style Brands for Pioneers
Tech for Efficiency: Applications and Apparatuses to Accomplish More
As infant botulism cases climb to 31, recalled ByHeart baby formula is still on some store shelves
Interpreter Starts Sobbing as 11-Year-Old Testifies About Last Time He Saw His Mom Before She Was Killed in Missile Strike
Agios Pharma shares jump as US FDA expands approval for its blood disorder drug
Find the Standards of Powerful Cooperation: Accomplishing Cooperative energy and Coordinated effort
Step by step instructions to Get a good deal on Your Rooftop Substitution Venture
My Enterprising Excursion: Building a Startup
Warship sunk by British fleet, remains of sailor found after 225 years












