A Mars spacecraft has now been AWOL for more than a month. But NASA hasn't given up hope of restoring contact with the MAVEN orbiter.

The Artemis II rocket and spacecraft are rolling out from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B. The process began at 7 a.m. and is expected to continue into the early evening.

MAVEN has remained silent since Dec. 6 despite repeated attempts to contact it, according to NASA. As part of the recovery effort, the Curiosity rover attempted twice to image MAVEN when it was expected to pass overhead, "but MAVEN was not detected," the agency said in its most recent update, issued Dec. 23.

NASA is preparing to roll out its towering Artemis 2 moon rocket to Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 17, and we will have full coverage of the major event here. The Artemis 2 moon rocket consists of NASA's second Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft,

Beyond the range of GPS and tracking satellites, the moonship depends on radio dish arrays for communication and navigation.

NASA lost contact with the MAVEN probe in Mars orbit, and teams are working to reestablish communications after an unexpected anomaly.

Skywatchers across the Bay Area will have a rare early-morning opportunity Thursday as a NASA SpaceX Dragon spacecraft makes its final pass over California before returning to Earth.

Two Americans and astronauts from Japan and Russia landed in a SpaceX capsule in the Pacific Ocean after a medical issue prompted NASA to move up their return to Earth.