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NASA Says Farewell to MAVEN Mars Mission, Hosts Media Call Today

Artist’s concept of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft at Mars. The spacecraft entered orbit around the planet in 2014 and has completed over eleven years of observing the Martian upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind to explore the loss of the Red Planet’s atmosphere to space. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Colorado/Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics 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 at Mars and a decade beyond its primary, one-year mission. The spacecraft was heard last on Dec. 6, when it experienced an unexpected loss of signal after it passed behind the Red Planet. NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT today, Wednesday, June 3, to discuss MAVEN’s achievements. The agency convened an anomaly review board in February to evaluate recovery efforts and assess the spacecraft’s probable current state. The review board has determined that the MAVEN spacecraft is not recoverable, and it is no longer capable of performing its science and data relay mission, which is consistent with the mission team’s findings. Telemetry from MAVEN prior to the spacecraft’s passage behind Mars in December showed all subsystems working normally. After the spacecraft emerged, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) did not observe a signal. A brief fragment of telemetry data from analysis of radio signals recorded by the DSN’s open-loop receivers indicated the spacecraft was in safe mode and rotating at an unusually high rate when it emerged from behind Mars, indicating a disruption in MAVEN’s orbit trajectory. The review board concluded that due to this rotation, the batteries on the spacecraft had drained, causing the communications system to lose power and rendering MAVEN in an unrecoverable state. These preliminary findings do not address a potential root cause for the anomaly, which still is being investigated. The review board is expected to provide its final report later this year. NASA has begun the official process of decommissioning the MAVEN mission, following standard procedures to archive the full mission dataset for the science and exploration communities. “The science MAVEN has given us is key to informing what kind of radiation protection and safety measures we must take before sending humans to Mars,” said Louise Prockter, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The data collected from MAVEN will continue to provide valuable insight into Mars for decades to come.” Launched in November 2013, the MAVEN mission explored the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun to explore the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space. Understanding atmospheric loss gives scientists insight into the history of the planet’s atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability. “The MAVEN mission has truly advanced our understanding of the Martian atmosphere and evolution. This dataset has had a tremendous impact on the field,” said Shannon Curry, MAVEN’s principal investigator and a researcher at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Our science team is exceptionally proud of all of these amazing discoveries.” Sun’s impact on Mars One of MAVEN’s first major results was that the erosion of Mars’ atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms . The team studied how the solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles continually streaming from the Sun, and solar storms continually strip away Mars’ atmosphere, as well as how this process played a key role in altering the Martian climate from a potentially habitable world to today’s cold, arid planet. The MAVEN mission made unprecedented strides in advancing our understanding of how the Sun and space weather affect Mars, as it was the only spacecraft that could simultaneously take measurements of both the Sun and the Martian atmospheric response. Martian light shows The MAVEN mission discovered several types of auroras that light up when energetic particles plunge into the atmosphere, bombarding gases and making them glow. The MAVEN team showed that protons create new kinds of auroras at Mars. On Earth, proton auroras only occur in very small regions near the poles, whereas at Mars they can occur everywhere. Mars’ atmosphere sputters into space To better understand how Mars lost most of its atmosphere, MAVEN measured atmospheric sputtering for the first time at any planet. The team did this by observing argon, which is a noble gas, meaning it rarely reacts with other constituents in the Martian atmosphere. The only significant way it can be removed is by atmospheric sputtering, a process where ions crash into the Martian atmosphere at high enough speeds that they splash gas molecules out of the atmosphere, much like doing a cannonball into a pool. The team used 11 years of data to reveal the presence of sputtered argon at high altitudes in the exact locations that the energetic particles crashed into the atmosphere, showing sputtering in real time. Understanding Mars’ dusty secrets In 2018, a series of dust storms created a dust cloud so large that it enveloped the Red Planet. The MAVEN team studied how this “global” dust storm affected Mars’ upper atmosphere to understand how these events affected the escape of water to space. It confirmed that heating from dust storms can loft water molecules far higher into the atmosphere than usual, leading to a sudden surge in water lost to space. Chasing comets In addition to Martian science, MAVEN contributed to NASA’s effort to observe comet 3I/ATLAS at Mars . Over the course of 10 days last year, the MAVEN team designed a new observing campaign to capture 3I/ATLAS by taking multiple images of the comet in several wavelengths, much like using various filters on a camera. Then it snapped high-resolution UV images to identify the hydrogen coming from the comet. By studying a combination of these images, scientists can identify a variety of molecules and better understand the comet’s composition and history.   During the mission’s lifetime, MAVEN’s science team produced more than 800 publications, and additional publications are planned. In addition to science, the MAVEN spacecraft was an instrumental player in NASA’s Mars Relay Network , communicating data from Mars rovers to Earth. It also holds the solar system record for most data relayed from another planet in a single day. Audio of today’s media teleconference will stream on the agency’s website at: https://www.nasa.gov/live Participants in the teleconference include: Tiffany Morgan, director, Mars Exploration Program, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters Mike Moreau, project manager, MAVEN, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland Greg Heckler, deputy program manager for Capability Development, SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation), NASA Headquarters Shannon Curry, MAVEN principal investigator, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder To ask questions by phone, media must RSVP no later than 12 p.m. to: [email protected] . NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. The MAVEN mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. The mission’s principal investigator is based at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, which also is responsible for managing science operations and public outreach and communications. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN mission. Lockheed Martin Space built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California provides navigation and Deep Space Network support.   For more information about NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-science/programs/mars-exploration -end- Karen Fox / Alana Johnson Headquarters, Washington 240-285-5155 / 202-672-4780 [email protected] / [email protected] Sarah Frazier Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 202-853-7191 [email protected] Share Details Last Updated Jun 03, 2026 Editor Jessica Taveau Location NASA Headquarters Related Terms MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) Deep Space Network Goddard Space Flight Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars Science Mission Directorate

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Typhoon Jangmi

Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Typhoon Jangmi Earth Earth Observatory Image of the Day EO Explorer Topics All Topics Atmosphere Land Heat & Radiation Life on Earth Human Dimensions Natural Events Oceans Remote Sensing Technology Snow & Ice Water More Content Collections Global Maps World of Change Articles Notes from the Field Blog Earth Matters Blog Blue Marble: Next Generation EO Kids Mission: Biomes About About Us Subscribe 🛜 RSS Contact Us Search From late May into early June 2026, a broad, slow-spinning storm churned north-northwest over the Philippine Sea toward southern Japan. Typhoon Jangmi’s rainbands unleashed torrential rainfall across a vast swath of the region, triggering flooding concerns in several areas. The VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime image (above) of the storm at about 16:40 Universal Time on May 30 (1:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time on May 31). Around that time, the typhoon produced sustained winds of 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour, based on 1-minute averages reported by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). That’s equivalent to a category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale . The image shows a detailed view of the eyewall and eye , with a diameter that is on the larger end of the spectrum, according to Scott Braun, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. There also appears to be some low-level rotation on the eastern side of the eye, producing features known as “mesocyclones” that are partially obscured by high-level clouds. Though they appear striking, the features are fairly typical, Braun noted. The second image shows a wider view of the same storm one day later. The VIIRS on the NOAA-20 satellite acquired this image at about 16:40 Universal Time on May 31 (1:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time on June 1), when the storm was a slightly stronger typhoon with sustained winds of 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour. In both images, Jangmi’s eye was still located south of Okinawa. However, the storm’s outer cloud bands already reached over land as the storm moved north. Forecasts called for the storm to make a close approach to Okinawa and then turn northeast toward the Amami region around June 1-2. It was expected to continue delivering large amounts of rain, especially along the nation’s Pacific coast, according to news reports . NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using VIIRS day-night band data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE , GIBS/Worldview , and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) . Story by Kathryn Hansen. Downloads May 30, 2026 JPEG (1.56 MB) May 31, 2026 JPEG (2.48 MB) References & Resources The Japan Times (2026, June 1) Tropical Storm Jangmi set to lash wide area of Japan . Accessed June 2, 2026. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (2026, June 1) Prognostic Reasoning for Tropical Storm 06W (Jangmi) . Accessed June 2, 2026. The New York Times (2026, June 2) Tracking Tropical Storm Jangmi . Accessed June 2, 2026. You may also be interested in: Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet. Super Typhoon Sinlaku 3 min read The violent storm aimed at the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands and Guam in mid-April 2026. Article Gravity Waves From Super Typhoon Sinlaku 4 min read Satellites observed striking upper-atmosphere phenomena generated by an intensifying tropical cyclone. Article Tropical Cyclone Narelle Crosses Australia 3 min read The powerful storm lashed the northern edge of the continent with damaging winds and drenching rain as it made landfall… Article 1 2 3 4 Next Keep Exploring Discover More from NASA Earth Science Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters Subscribe to the Earth Observatory and get the Earth in your inbox. Earth Observatory Image of the Day NASA’s Earth Observatory brings you the Earth, every day, with in-depth stories and stunning imagery. Explore Earth Science Earth Science Data Open access to NASA’s archive of Earth science data