NASA may have lost contact permanently with its long-running Mars orbiter, MAVEN, which has been silent since December 6 while passing behind Mars.

Analysis suggests the spacecraft is tumbling and has left its planned orbit, making recovery unlikely.

MAVEN exceeded its original two-year mission, studying Mars’ upper atmosphere, the solar wind, and helping relay communications for rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance.

Multiple attempts to locate or image the spacecraft, including using the Deep Space Network and the Curiosity rover, have failed, Peta Pixel has reported.

The mission, launched in 2013, provided over a decade of valuable data on how Mars lost much of its atmosphere.