An artist's concept of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars. [Photo/Agencies]
LOS ANGELES - The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), NASA's first mission devoted to observing the Martian atmosphere and its evolution, has officially come to an end after losing contact with its spacecraft last December, the agency announced on Wednesday.
Blasting off on Nov 18, 2013, the spacecraft entered Mars' orbit on Sept 21, 2014. Originally designed for a one-year primary mission, the spacecraft operated at the Red Planet for more than 11 years and exceeded its planned mission life by more than a decade, according to NASA.
The spacecraft was last heard on Dec 6, 2025, when it experienced an unexpected loss of signal after it passed behind Mars.
NASA convened an anomaly review board in February to evaluate recovery efforts and assess the spacecraft's condition.
