MAVEN Joins Mars' Orbital Graveyard as NASA Bids Farewell to Atmospheric Explorer

NASA's MAVEN orbiter, which studied the Red Planet's atmosphere for nearly a decade, has been declared dead and now joins Mars' orbital graveyard. Its planned end-state would have left it in orbit for 50–100 years before eventual re-entry, and MAVEN's findings clarified how the solar wind stripped Mars' atmosphere billions of years ago. With MAVEN gone, only a handful of Mars orbiters remain active (Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, MRO, TGO, Hope, Tianwen‑1), while on the surface only Curiosity and Perseverance remain operational.