NASA loses contact – NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft orbiting Mars for more than a decade. Read this also MAVEN releases first photos of Mars’ atmosphere Maven suddenly stopped communicating with ground stations over the weekend.

NASA said this week that it was working fine before it went past the red planet. When it reappeared there was only silence. Launched in 2013, MAVEN began studying the upper Martian atmosphere and its interactions with the solar wind after arriving at the Red Planet the following year.

Scientists ultimately blamed the Sun for Mars, which lost most of its atmosphere to space over the eons, turning it from the wet and hot world of today to the dry and cold one it is today. MAVEN has also served as a communications relay for NASA’s two Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance. According to NASA, engineering investigations are ongoing.

NASA has two other spacecraft orbiting Mars that are still active: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2005, and Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001.