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A NASA telescope is slowly plummeting to earth and there's no way to save it

NPR | By Danielle Kurtzleben ,

Henry Larson, Tinbete Ermyas

Published August 23, 2026 at 4:23 PM CDT

NASA's Swift Observatory has orbited the Earth since 2004. It's now falling towards earth, and after a failed mission to save it, NASA is leaving the doomed telescope to its fate.

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All Things Considered

Danielle Kurtzleben

Danielle Kurtzleben is a White House correspondent on NPR's Washington Desk. She appears regularly on the NPR Politics Podcast and other NPR shows.

See stories by Danielle Kurtzleben

Henry Larson

Tinbete Ermyas

Flock Safety alternatives: new names, same surveillance

Jaclyn Diaz

Strong public backlash has lead dozens of cities to cancel their contracts with Flock Safety, which makes license plate readers for police departments. But what are the alternatives to Flock?
What if adults talked like kids?

Danielle Kurtzleben , Henry Larson, Michael Levitt

Comedian Alyce Chan explores the hilarity parenthood in her MOM-COM NYC on Instagram. Her video series about the blunt and innocent way children ask questions has gone viral.
Climate change is unearthing new archeological discoveries, while also threating them

Danielle Kurtzleben , Henry Larson, Michael Levitt

NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben speaks with Jørgen Hollesen, a Senior Researcher at the National Museum of Denmark, about how climate change is impacting the study of archaeology.
How movies have explored manhood... For better and worse

Danielle Kurtzleben , Elena Moore, Marc Rivers

Movies have been exploring what it means to be a man almost as long as there have been movies. But where is the line between critiquing or lionizing the dominant ideas of manhood?
Learning to live in a post-American world

Danielle Kurtzleben , Tinbete Ermyas, Christopher Harland-Dunaway

In a recent article for Foregin Affairs, Mark Leonard makes that argument that America's leading role in the world order is fading. He discusses his argument with NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben.