Space & Astronomy

Mystery as NASA probe suddenly falls silent in orbit around Mars

By T.K. Randall
December 12, 2025 ·  10 comments

Image: Mars MAVEN Orbiter
Credit: (PD) NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Known as MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN), the spacecraft - which launched in 2013 - has spent more than 11 years analyzing the planet's atmosphere and ionosphere.

Things had been operating normally when, on December 6th of this year, its signal was lost as it orbited behind the Red Planet - an expected and routine event of typically little concern.

When it was due to re-emerge and re-establish contact, however, there was nothing but silence.

NASA's Deep Space Network listened out intently as operations teams attempted to contact the spacecraft, but so far nothing has been picked up at all.Exactly why the probe would go totally silent when everything had been working correctly just a short time ago currently remains a complete mystery.

What could have happened to it ?

"Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the Red Planet," NASA wrote. "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."

Source: NASA.gov | Comments (10)

Tags: Maven, Mars