NASA News 3 December 2025 - 27 January 2026

NASA is racing to re‑establish contact with MAVEN, a Mars orbiter that has quietly underpinned Red Planet science and communications for more than a decade, after the spacecraft unexpectedly fell silent on December 6, 2025.NASA Science+2ScienceAlert+2 The loss of signal raises urgent questions about the health of the spacecraft, the resilience of NASA’s aging Mars communications network, and the knock‑on effects for current and future missions — including plans to eventually return Martian rock samples to Earth.Scientific American+1 When and how NASA lost contact with MAVEN According to NASA, MAVEN (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) was operating normally

Hubble, ESA’s Juice spacecraft and ALMA are now all locked onto the rare interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS, revealing dramatic jets, twin tails and a rich mix of organic molecules as the comet makes a safe, distant pass through the inner solar system. A once‑in‑a‑lifetime visitor, now in the spotlight Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS – officially C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) – has moved from obscure sky dot to global headline-maker in just a few months. In the last few days: All this is happening just as 3I/ATLAS heads toward its closest approach to Earth on December 19, 2025, when it will still remain a