What happened to the Kepler mission after its reaction wheels failed?

After the failure of a second reaction wheel in May 2013, which ended the original data collection mission, the Kepler spacecraft was not abandoned. Scientists developed an innovative observing strategy known as the K2 mission to continue the search for extrasolar planets.

This new approach utilized the two remaining functional reaction wheels in combination with solar radiation pressure acting on the spacecraft's solar panels. This technique allowed the telescope to maintain a stable point in the sky for 83-day intervals. Once an 83-day observation period concluded, the satellite was rotated to a new patch of sky to avoid sunlight entering the telescope. The K2 mission officially began in May 2014 and remained productive until October 2018, when the spacecraft finally exhausted its fuel supply and was retired.1