MAVEN’s Mission Around Mars Concludes

(MENAFN) After more than ten years of studying the Martian skies, the MAVEN spacecraft has completed its journey, according to NASA on Wednesday.

“The first mission devoted to observing the Martian atmosphere and its evolution, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), has ended after more than 11 years in orbit,” the agency declared on its official site.

Originally, MAVEN was intended to operate for just a single year, but it far surpassed scientists’ initial expectations.

The spacecraft’s last communication was received on December 6, when it unexpectedly lost contact after moving behind Mars, explained NASA.

In February, the agency convened an “anomaly review board” to examine recovery attempts and evaluate MAVEN’s likely condition. The board concluded that the spacecraft “is not recoverable, and it is no longer capable of performing its science and data relay mission.”

Following this, standard protocols were applied to preserve the mission’s complete dataset, and the formal process to end MAVEN’s operations was initiated.

Launched in 2013, MAVEN entered Mars’ orbit in 2014 and began investigating the planet’s upper atmosphere, focusing on its interaction with solar winds.

MENAFN06062026000045017167ID1111219465