Overview
- The last confirmed signal from MAVEN was received by NASA’s Deep Space Network on December 6, 2025 before the spacecraft passed behind Mars and lost sustained contact.
- When MAVEN reemerged from occultation, telemetry indicated it had entered safe mode and was rotating uncontrollably, a condition that appears to have prevented its solar panels from pointing at the Sun and caused the batteries to drain.
- NASA made repeated contact attempts over the following months without success and formally declared the mission over after a public briefing about the loss.
- An internal investigation is under way to identify the root technical fault and NASA says a detailed final report is expected in 2026.
- MAVEN flew past Mars in 2014 after a 2013 launch, delivered key findings on how solar wind and storms strip the Martian atmosphere, discovered proton-driven auroras across the planet, supported comet 3I/ATLAS studies, and served as a communications relay for surface rovers.