NASA says its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN or MAVEN orbiter has gone offline. The spacecraft team is said to have experienced a loss of signal from the orbiter on December 6, after it emerged from behind Mars. NASA said that it is investigating the anomaly that sent MAVEN offline.
NASA Teams Work MAVEN Spacecraft Signal Loss
NASA’S MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6. Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it… pic.twitter.com/Sm45hXnOPA
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) December 10, 2025
“NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6. Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the Red Planet,” NASA said in a statement. “After the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA’s Deep Space Network did not observe a signal. The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation. More information will be shared once it becomes available.“
The MAVEN orbiter
MAVEN launched to Mars in November 2013 and entered the Martian orbit in September 2014. The orbiter measures 11.4 metres in length and 2.29 metres wide, and is equipped with a suite of nine instruments. Its objective is to determine the amount and types of gas particles escaping the Martian atmosphere today, the processes that govern the escape, and how the Martian climate has evolved due to these processes.
MAVEN is orbiting Mars in a highly elliptical 4,500 by 150 kilometers orbit and apart from observing the red planet, it serves as a data relay for the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.
As of today, there are a total of six orbiters that are studying Mars. NASA has two other spacecraft – Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2001 Mars Odyssey, the longest-running mission. The European Space Agency (ESA) also operates two spacecraft – ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express – which are together mapping the surface, taking high-resolution pictures and characterising the Martian climate.
Both NASA and ESA recently employed their Mars orbiters to take images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS when it made its closest approach to the red planet on October 3. MAVEN used its Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph to take the comet’s pictures in ultraviolet light, distinguishing the hydrogen emission from 3I/ATLAS, Mars and the hydrogen flowing through our solar system.
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