Nov 21 2006
From The Space Library
NASA announced that its Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was likely no longer operational. The spacecraft had ceased communications with NASA on 2 November 2006, and NASA’s subsequent efforts to reestablish communications had failed. NASA did not officially terminate the spacecraft’s mission. NASA had launched MGS in November 1996 to create a map of Mars. After completing its primary mission in January 2001, MGS had remained in operation, and NASA had decided to extend the spacecraft’s mission. The MGS mission had eventually become the longest and most productive ever sent to Mars, producing nearly 240,000 images that revealed features of Mars never before seen, as well as the first strong evidence of the previous existence of water on the planet.
NASA, “NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor May Be at Mission’s End,” news release 06-357, 21 November 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/nov/HQ_06357_MGS_update.html (accessed 7 July 2010); Thomas H. Maugh II, “Missing Mars Craft Appears To Be a Lost Cause,” Los Angeles Times, 22 November 2006.
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