NASA's InSight lander ends mission on Mars after losing contact

NASA's InSight lander has ended its mission after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars, NASA announced on Wednesday.

Mission controllers at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts, which led them to conclude the spacecraft's solar-powered batteries had run out of energy - a state engineers refer to as "dead bus."

NASA had previously decided to declare the mission over if the lander missed two communication attempts.

The last time InSight communicated with Earth was on Dec. 15, according to NASA.