High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was a US spacecraft developed by NASA`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. It began the United States`s return to Mars after a 10-year absence. It completed its primary mission in January 2001 and was in its third extended mission phase when, on 2 November 2006, the spacecraft failed to respond to messages and commands. A faint signal was detected three days later which indicated that the craft had gone into safe mode. All attempts to recontact the Mars Global Surveyor and resolve the problem failed. In January 2007 NASA officially ended the mission.