Urgent hunt for Maven spacecraft after NASA abruptly loses contact

NASA has lost contact with its MAVEN spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars for over a decade.

The MAVEN probe, launched in 2013, ceased communication with ground stations over the weekend after passing behind the Red Planet.

Its primary mission was to study Mars' upper atmosphere and its interaction with solar wind, revealing how the planet lost most of its atmosphere.

The spacecraft also served as a crucial communication relay for NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the Martian surface.

NASA is currently investigating the anomaly, with MAVEN having significantly exceeded its initial estimated mission lifetime of one year.