NASA's new Mars mission landed

After seven months of traveling through space, a NASA mission has landed on Mars. The roughly $830 million mission is called InSight, short for “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.” NASA rocketed its 789-pound robot toward Mars on May 5, and InSight completed a treacherous 14-minute descent to the Martian surface with the help of a supersonic parachute at 2:54 p.m. on Monday. The spacecraft confirmed its safe arrival with a beep — a moment that sent scientists and engineers jumping and screaming for joy in mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Monday's Mars landing was the first since the nuclear-powered Curiosity rover reached the red planet's surface more than six years ago. The spacecraft is now poised to probe Mars over the next two Earth years (about one Martian year). InSight's goal is to study the interior of Mars and take the planet's vital signs, its pulse, and temperature," NASA says on its mission website. The InSight mission's goal is to figure out how Mars formed and what has happened to the planet since then.

In Other News A Wisconsin school district will not punish students who were photographed last spring while appearing to give the Nazi salute. The photo showing a group of male, mostly white high school students in the Baraboo School District with their arms raised sparked an investigation by police and the school district, along with criticism from a Holocaust memorial group. In a recent letter to parents and the community, Baraboo School District Administrator Lori M. Mueller said the district made the decision after a 10-day review. She said district officials are unclear about some key details surrounding the photograph despite their efforts. "As previously stated, we cannot know the intentions in the hearts of those who were involved. Moreover, because of students' First Amendment rights, the district is not in a position to punish the students for their actions," administrators said in the letter. Six-in-10 Americans disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as President, according to a new Gallup poll out Monday. Hundreds of troops previously stationed in Texas and Arizona have been moved to California to support border patrol agents securing the border against the thousands of Central American migrants camped nearby. Last week, there were 2,800 troops in Texas, 1,500 in Arizona, and another 1,500 in California. Over a period of several weeks, the active-duty military personnel deployed to these states ran over 60,000 feet of concertina (razor) wire. Now, after the recent shift, there are 2,400 troops in Texas, 1,400 in Arizona, and 1,800 in California. The total number of active-duty troops at the border has decreased by about 200. While the number of troops deployed to the southern border has decreased, the number of troops serving in California is on the rise. Thousands of migrants have been pouring into Tijuana, which is where more than 5,000 migrants, possibly many more, are camped.