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NASA · OrbiterEnded

MAVEN Mars orbiter

MAVEN was a NASA spacecraft that orbited Mars for more than 11 years, studying its upper atmosphere, until it fell silent on Dec 6, 2025. It found that Mars lost most of its air to space, stripped away mainly by the solar wind and the Sun’s radiation. NASA ended the mission on Jun 3, 2026, after a review board found the spacecraft could not be recovered.

Updated Sources (20)

What was the MAVEN spacecraft?

MAVEN, short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, was the first spacecraft devoted to the upper atmosphere of Mars.[1][3] Its job was to find out how much of Mars’s air was lost to space, and how that loss helped turn a planet that may once have supported life into a cold, dry desert.[4][6]

It launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral on Nov 18, 2013, and entered orbit after a 10-month trip, on Sep 22, 2014 (UTC). That was the evening of Sep 21 in US Eastern time.[3][4] Its orbit was a long oval that dipped to about 150 km (93 mi) above the surface. On “deep dip” campaigns it went down to about 125 km (78 mi), where the upper and lower atmosphere meet.[3][4] Science began in November 2014, and the plan was one Earth year of it.[3][5]

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center managed the mission. The University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics led the science, Lockheed Martin built and operated the spacecraft, and JPL navigated it.[1]

What happened to MAVEN?

MAVEN went silent on Dec 6, 2025, after passing behind Mars, and was not heard from again.[1][9] NASA’s review board found it had been spinning fast enough to drain its batteries.[1]

  1. Dec 4, 2025The last regular telemetry. Data from before MAVEN passed behind Mars showed all its systems working normally.[1][10]
  2. Dec 6, 2025MAVEN came out from behind Mars, but NASA’s Deep Space Network heard no signal. A brief fragment of radio data recorded that day showed it in safe mode and rotating unusually fast. The signal’s frequency suggested its orbit had changed.[1][10]
  3. Dec 16 and 20, 2025NASA’s Curiosity rover pointed its Mastcam camera at the sky where MAVEN should have been. It did not see it.[11]
  4. Dec 29, 2025 – Jan 16, 2026Mars and Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun, and NASA had no contact with any Mars mission.[11]
  5. January 2026The search resumed with the Deep Space Network and the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory.[12]
  6. Mid-February 2026NASA convened an anomaly review board to judge the recovery effort and MAVEN’s likely state.[13]
  7. Jun 3, 2026NASA ended the mission. The board concluded the spin had drained MAVEN’s batteries, so its radio lost power, and that the spacecraft “is not recoverable.”[1]

Those findings don’t give a root cause. In June NASA said the cause was still being investigated and the board’s final report was expected later in 2026. NASA has begun decommissioning the mission and archiving all its data.[1] We had not seen the final report published as of Oct 6, 2026. Project manager Mike Moreau said MAVEN is in an orbit “very similar” to the one planned for its end of mission, where it would stay for 50 to 100 years before entering the Martian atmosphere, Space.com reported.[20]

How long did MAVEN last?

More than 11 years in Mars orbit, against a planned one-year science mission.[1][3] NASA counts 12 years, 6 months and 16 days from launch to the end of the mission.[2]

11+years in orbit, Sep 2014 to Dec 2025
1Earth year of science planned
800+science publications from its team
897.5 Mbrover data relayed per day, on average, through 2025
23%of NASA’s rover data relay, per a 2025 NASA review
2,454 kg5,410 lb at launch, with fuel

Mb is megabits. Figures from NASA’s mission page, its June 2026 announcement, its Mars Relay Network page and a 2025 NASA review.[2][1][7][8]

What did MAVEN find at Mars?

That Mars lost most of its air to space, stripped away mainly by the solar wind and the Sun’s radiation.[6] Liquid water can’t last on the surface today because the air is too cold and thin, though dry riverbeds show it once flowed.[6] The young Sun was more active, so the stripping was probably much faster billions of years ago.[6][14]

MAVEN’s main findings, by the date NASA announced them
AnnouncedWhat MAVEN found
Nov 2015Mars loses about 100 g (1/4 lb) of gas a secondstripped by the solar wind; the loss speeds up during solar storms
Mar 2017About 65% of the argon Mars ever had is goneevidence that most of its air, including most of its carbon dioxide, was lost to space
By Jun 2017Two new kinds of aurora“diffuse” and “proton” auroras, unrelated to any magnetic field
Jul 2018How proton auroras formsolar wind protons steal electrons, slip past the shock wave around Mars and make the dayside glow in ultraviolet
2018 stormDust storms speed up water lossthe 2018 global dust storm lofted water so high that loss to space surged
May 2025Sputtering seen directly, a first at any planetfast ions splash gas out of the air, four times faster than predicted

Dates are when NASA announced each result. The dust storm row is dated by the storm; NASA summarized that result in its June 2026 farewell release.[14][6][5][15][1][16]

It also watched passing comets. Dust from Comet Siding Spring, which flew past Mars in October 2014, boosted a layer of metal ions in the upper atmosphere.[5] For 10 days from Sep 27, 2025, it took ultraviolet images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, tracing hydrogen coming off it.[18] In August 2022 it saw two kinds of aurora at once for the first time, set off by a solar storm.[19] Our Mars atmosphere page covers what is left of the air, and water on Mars covers where the water went.

How did MAVEN help the rovers?

It relayed their data to Earth, more of it on average than any other NASA orbiter.[7] Through 2025 it carried 897.5 megabits a day on average, second only to ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter.[7] NASA says it holds the solar system record for the most data relayed from another planet in a single day.[1]

MAVEN wasn’t built mainly as a relay, but it carried NASA’s Electra radio for talking to rovers and landers.[2][17] In 2019 NASA used the atmosphere to brake it into a tighter orbit, lowering its high point from about 6,200 km (3,850 mi) to about 4,500 km (2,800 mi). NASA said the tighter orbit would take it around Mars 6.8 times a day instead of 5.3, so it could talk to the rovers more often, ahead of the Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance.[17][7] When Perseverance landed in 2021, MAVEN recorded the whole radio spectrum around the rover’s transmitter.[7] A 2025 NASA review found it handled 23% of the relay for NASA’s rovers.[8]

After it went silent, NASA arranged extra passes from the other orbiters, and the rover teams changed their daily plans.[10] The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s average relay load nearly doubled, from 447.5 megabits a day on average through 2025 to 850.6 from February to May 2026.[7] NASA’s plan for a dedicated relay spacecraft is on our Mars Telecommunications Orbiter page.

Mission timeline

  1. Launches on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral.[4]
  2. Enters orbit around Mars (UTC; Sep 21 in US time).[3][4]
  3. Studies Comet Siding Spring as it passes Mars.[5]
  4. Begins its one-year primary science mission.[5]
  5. NASA reports the solar wind strips about 100 g of gas from Mars every second.[14]
  6. NASA reports that most of Mars’s air has been lost to space.[6]
  7. Begins aerobraking into a tighter orbit for rover relay.[17]
  8. The team reports the first direct observation of sputtering.[16]
  9. Starts 10 days of ultraviolet imaging of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.[18]
  10. Last heard from, after passing behind Mars.[1]
  11. NASA declares the mission over.[1][2]

Questions

What happened to MAVEN?

It went silent on Dec 6, 2025, after passing behind Mars. A last fragment of radio data showed it in safe mode and spinning unusually fast. NASA’s review board concluded the spin drained its batteries, cutting power to its radio, and NASA ended the mission on Jun 3, 2026.

Is MAVEN still orbiting Mars?

Probably. In June 2026 NASA’s MAVEN project manager, Mike Moreau, said it is in an orbit “very similar” to the one planned for its end of mission, where it would stay for 50 to 100 years before entering the Martian atmosphere, Space.com reported. Its last tracking data suggested its orbit had changed, and when the Curiosity rover looked for it in its expected orbit in December 2025, it saw nothing.

Can NASA fix MAVEN?

No. Recovery commands sent through NASA’s Deep Space Network got no reply, and NASA’s anomaly review board determined the spacecraft “is not recoverable.”

How long did MAVEN last?

More than 11 years in Mars orbit, from Sep 22, 2014 (UTC) to its last contact on Dec 6, 2025. Its primary science mission was planned to last one Earth year.

What does MAVEN stand for?

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN. NASA writes the last word with a capital N, which supplies the final letter of the name.

Which orbiters relay rover data now that MAVEN is gone?

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, and ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter, with ESA’s Mars Express as a backup. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s average daily relay load nearly doubled after MAVEN fell silent.

Sources

  1. NASA — NASA Says Farewell to MAVEN Mars Mission, Hosts Media Call TodayPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  2. NASA Science — MAVENPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  3. NASA — NASA’s Newest Mars Mission Spacecraft Enters Orbit around Red PlanetPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  4. NASA NSSDCA — Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) (2013-063A)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  5. NASA — 1,000 Days in Orbit: MAVEN’s Top 10 Discoveries at MarsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  6. NASA — NASA’s MAVEN Reveals Most of Mars’ Atmosphere Was Lost to SpacePrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  7. NASA Science — Mars Relay NetworkPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  8. NASA Planetary Science Division — 2025 Planetary Mission Senior Review: Final ReportPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  9. NASA Science — NASA Teams Work MAVEN Spacecraft Signal LossPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  10. NASA Science — NASA Continues MAVEN Spacecraft Recontact EffortsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  11. NASA Science — NASA Works MAVEN Spacecraft Issue Ahead of Solar ConjunctionPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  12. NASA Science — NASA Resumes Efforts to Reestablish Contact With MAVENPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  13. NASA Science — NASA Anomaly Review Board Investigates MAVEN Loss of SignalPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  14. NASA — NASA Mission Reveals Speed of Solar Wind Stripping Martian AtmospherePrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  15. NASA — NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft Finds That “Stolen” Electrons Enable Unusual Aurora on MarsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  16. NASA Science — NASA’s MAVEN Makes First Observation of Atmospheric Sputtering at MarsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  17. NASA JPL — NASA’s MAVEN Shrinking Its Orbit for Mars 2020 RoverPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  18. NASA — NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Capture Images of Comet 3I/ATLASPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  19. NASA — NASA’s MAVEN Observes Martian Light Show Caused by Major Solar StormPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
  20. Space.com — NASA’s dead Mars orbiter MAVEN will crash into the Red Planet in the next 100 years. It’s not the only probe in the Mars morgueSecondary · checked Oct 6, 2026