Watch a video replay of NASA’s exoplanet announcement

NASA managers tried for the last time earlier this month to coax the InSight lander’s long-stuck subsurface heat probe into the Martian soil, but after seeing no more progress, ground teams decided to end their efforts and focus on the mission’s other science objectives.

Oklahoma Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine resigned from the House of Representatives Monday and was sworn in as NASA’s 13th administrator by Vice President Mike Pence, chairman of the recently revitalized National Space Council.

Former space shuttle commander Bob Cabana, who has led NASA’s Kennedy Space Center since 2008, will take a new job in Washington as the space agency’s No. 3 official next week.