NASA has lost contact with one of its three spacecraft orbiting Mars, the agency announced Tuesday. Meanwhile, a second Mars orbiter is perilously close to running out of fuel, and the third mission is running well past its warranty.

Ground teams last heard from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft on Saturday, December 6. “Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the red planet,” NASA said in a short statement. “After the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA’s Deep Space Network did not observe a signal.”

NASA said mission controllers are “investigating the anomaly to address the situation. More information will be shared once it becomes available.”

Read full article

Comments

Origianl Creator:
Stephen Clark

Original Link: https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/12/nasa-just-lost-contact-with-a-mars-orbiter-and-will-soon-lose-another-one/
Originally Posted: Thu, 11 Dec 2025 00:29:54 +0000