Timeline of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Timeline for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ("MRO") lists the significant events of the launch, aerobraking, and transition phases as well as subsequent significant operational mission events; by date and brief description. Mission prospects. On February 9, 2018, NASA announced that it would keep using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter past the mid-2020s, although in the meantime the spacecraft and mission must face signs of age-related functional disturbances: 1. flagging batteries, 2. blurred images from HiRISE since 2017, 3. lowering reliability of gyroscopes or accelerometers for navigation, which will require a challenging examination on a matching  mission design. Despite those challenges the reasons for this decision are: the loss of "Mars Global Surveyor" in 2006, the postponement of the Mars 2022 orbiter as the proposed successor of MRO and "MAVEN"'s shortage of fuel, that makes MRO now the critical element of the NASA's further Mars Exploration Program.