NASA Declares End of MAVEN Mars Mission After 11-Year Run

NASA has officially ended the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission after losing contact in December 2025. Launched in 2013 and in Martian orbit since 2014, MAVEN surpassed its one-year primary mission by more than a decade and even aided the Perseverance rover as a communications relay. An anomaly review determined the spacecraft can no longer perform science or relay data, likely due to a high-rate safe-mode rotation that drained its batteries after re-emerging from behind Mars. NASA will publish a full root-cause report later this year. MAVEN’s observations showed solar winds and storms drive atmospheric loss on Mars and helped explain dust-storm–related water loss.