The little space probe that could

Launched in 1997, the spacecraft's orbits around Saturn and its moons were supposed to end in 2007. On Friday, finally running out of fuel for maneuvering and concerned about a crash into a moon with potential for life, NASA gave Cassini a "Thelma & Louise" sendoff.

Gabi Gonzalez/AP Every tree snapped, every green thing gone, no hospital, no power. A week after Irma, many Virgin Islanders still hadn’t seen help While Florida took a fierce but lighter-than-expected blow from Hurricane Irma, the British and American islands were scarred by the full force of the Category 5 storm’s wrath. The aftermath "was kind of crazy, like a war zone, and people were just walking around like zombies," said one St. Thomas resident. On St. John, an islander’s mother told her, “people have nothing, and they're getting robbed of the nothing they have.” And on British Tortola, “the insect population has exploded and they're pissed off." Adam Cole/NASA/JPL On its 23-year voyage through the void, Cassini reintroduced us to our giant neighbors The probe's fatal plunge into Saturn's atmosphere Friday morning brought an end to a mission that lasted a decade longer than expected. Along the way it found at least seven new moons and took spectacular images of Jupiter, Saturn and its rings — more than 400,000 snapshots in all. In its final descent, it beamed back data that could tell us about Saturn's atmosphere and day length. Adrienne Grunwald for NPR "I was on the path to winning. ... And then... In wide-ranging interviews with NPR, Hillary Clinton — who released a memoir of the 2016 campaign this week — says she takes the blame for her loss. But she also says she feels a responsibility to speak out on a litany of other factors she says contributed, including foreign interference, voter suppression in swing states, her opponent’s “racial and ethnic and sexist appeals” and a mostly male portion of the electorate — on the right and the left — that is resistant to the idea of a female president. "I want people to understand sexism and misogyny are real,” she said. Minden Pictures RM/Getty Images It's got gross nicknames and a face to match, but Ohio wants the Eastern hellbender salamander to stick around The amphibians, also known as snot otters, are endangered in five states, and their numbers dropped 82 percent in just 11 years. But the slime limbs have allies at Ohio's universities and zoos, which are raising them in captivity and then releasing them into their native creeks. "What we're doing today [is] we're buying ourselves time," says a biologist leading the effort. Lasagna lizards live for 30 years, "which gives us a lot of time to get the creeks cleaner." Get to know the salamanders, including which of these nicknames is made up. Miami-Dade Police Department Chainsaw for others as you would have them chainsaw for you Sister Margaret Ann, principal of Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll High School, says the school tries to teach its students to do what they can to help. So when she saw tree limbs blocking the nearby road after Hurricane Irma blew past Miami, she knew she needed to lead by example. With international media interest, she became a habit-framed face of her community's effort to recover. You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002