A timeline of two towns on the Arizona-Utah border once controlled by a polygamist sect

HILDALE, Utah (AP) — The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints settled in a remote area along the Arizona-Utah border in the 1930s after the polygamist sect broke away from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the mainstream Mormon church that renounced plural marriage in 1890.

The FLDS controlled the municipal governments and shared police force in neighboring Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, for decades. But the sect's leader and prophet, Warren Jeffs, was convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting two girls. And federal prosecutors accused the towns of denying basic services such as water hookups and police protection to nonbelievers, leading to a 2017 order placing the towns under court supervision.

With the sect's leader in prison and stripped of its control over the towns, many members have left the FLDS or moved away. Last summer, the court lifted its supervision nearly two years earlier than expected, finding that the communities had made significant progress.

Here's a look at the history:

Authorities raid Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, which were known then as the Short Creek community. Dozens of men and women are jailed, and their children are put in foster care. It turns into a public relations disaster for Arizona authorities after news photos of children being torn from their mothers’ arms stir up public sympathy, and officials turn a blind eye to polygamy in the towns for decades.

Jeffs emerges as the sect's new leader, taking over for his late father.

With Utah and Arizona prosecutors banding together to crack down on the alleged abuse of women and girls in the towns, Jeffs is charged in Arizona with allegedly marrying off a teenage girl to a 28-year-old follower who was already married. Authorities aren't able to locate Jeffs, and the charges are dismissed in 2010.

While a fugitive, Jeffs is arrested during a Las Vegas traffic stop on charges of arranging marriages between underage girls and older men in Arizona and Utah. Inside the vehicle, authorities find three wigs, 15 cellphones, $54,000 in cash and $10,000 in gift cards.

Jeffs is convicted in Utah of being an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old to marry her 19-year-old cousin, though the Utah Supreme Court would overturn the conviction in 2010 and prosecutors would ultimately dismiss the case, since Jeffs had since been imprisoned in Texas.

Authorities conduct a massive raid on the sect’s remote Texas ranch, collecting evidence that would be used to convict Jeffs. The raid was prompted by a call to a family violence shelter from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl who had been beaten and raped by her 50-year-old husband. The call was a hoax, but investigators saw pregnant underage girls during the raid and were told about polygamist marriages, leading to charges against Jeffs and other men.

Jeffs is convicted in Texas of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, and sentenced to life in prison. The Texas case marks the only successful prosecution of Jeffs.

The Justice Department wins a religious discrimination verdict against Colorado City and Hildale for denying nonbelievers building permits, water hookups and police protection.

A court places the towns under supervision so that their municipal governments can be overhauled to remedy the constitutional violations.

Colorado City and Hildale are released from court supervision nearly two years earlier than expected.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - Hildale, Utah, sitting at the base of Red Rock Cliff mountains, with its sister city, Colorado City, Ariz., in the foreground, on Oct. 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

FILE - Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, left, is driven away from the Tom Green County Courthouse by Sheriff's personnel Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011, in San Angelo, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

FILE - Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, left, walk toward a waiting charter bus as Schleicher County Sheriffs deputies help provide security, Sunday, April 6, 2008, in Eldorado, Texas. The two and other members of their church were being relocated to temporary housing in San Angelo, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

FILE - Warren Jeffs, left, and council react to the verdict against him Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007, in St. George, Utah. (Jud Burkett/The Spectrum via AP, File)

FILE - Polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs appears in a courtroom surrounded by guards in Las Vegas, on Aug. 31, 2006. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch, File)

FILE - Norma Richter points to a collection of portraits of prophets of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, including Warren Jeffs, bottom right, on a wall at her home in a community on the Utah-Arizona border, Oct. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

FILE - The twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, are surrounded by a backdrop of the Vermillion Cliffs, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004. The polygamist town was originally known as Short Creek, but residents later changed the name after an infamous 1953 raid by Arizona officials who hauled polygamist men away and sent more than 200 children to foster homes. (AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta, File)

FILE - From left, Esther Bistline, Angie Bistline, Lydia Ann Richter and Norma Richter gather to pose for photographs in Colorado City, Ariz., on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that NASA is counting on to land astronauts on the moon.

The redesigned mega rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he’s taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites that were released midway through the hourlong spaceflight that stretched halfway around the world.

The spacecraft reached its final destination — the Indian Ocean — despite some engine trouble, before erupting in flames upon impact. That last part was not unexpected, according to SpaceX.

Musk called it “an epic” launch and landing.

“You scored a goal for humanity,” he told his team via X.

It’s the 12th test flight of the rocket that Musk is building to get people to Mars one day. But first comes the moon and NASA’s Artemis program.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman flew in for the launch, saying Starship is now one step closer to the moon.

The last of the old space-skimming Starships lifted off in October. SpaceX’s third-generation Starship — a souped-up version dubbed V3 — soared from a brand-new launch pad at Starbase, near the Mexican border. Last-minute pad issues thwarted Thursday evening's launch attempt.

SpaceX was hoping to avoid the fireworks it experienced during back-to-back launches last year when midair explosions rained wreckage down on the Atlantic. Earlier flights also ended in flames.

There was no fireball this time until the very end. The spacecraft plummeted upright into the Indian Ocean under seemingly full control, then toppled over and ignited.

While the liftoff itself went well, not all of the engines fired as the booster attempted a controlled return. The spacecraft also had to make do with fewer engines, but kept heading eastward 120 miles (194 kilometers) up. A pair of modified, camera-equipped Starlinks ejected from Starship provided brief views of the spacecraft in flight — a remarkable first.

At 407 feet (124 meters), the latest model eclipses the older Starship lines by several feet (more than 1 meter) and packs more engine thrust.

The revamped booster sports fewer but bigger and stronger grid fins for steering it back to Earth following liftoff, and a larger and more robust fuel transfer line to feed the 33 main engines. This fuel line is the size of SpaceX's Falcon 9 first-stage booster. The retro-looking, stainless steel spacecraft also has more of everything — more cameras and more navigation and computer power — as well as docking cones for future rendezvous and moon missions.

Starship is meant to be fully reusable, with giant mechanical arms at the launch pads to catch the returning rocket stages. But on this latest trial run, nothing was being recovered. The Gulf of Mexico marked the end of the road for the redesigned first-stage booster, and the Indian Ocean for the spacecraft and its satellite demos.

NASA is paying SpaceX billions of dollars — and also Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin — to provide the lunar landers that will be used to land Artemis astronauts on the moon.

The two companies are scrambling to be first.

While Starship has reached the fringes of space on multiple flights lasting an hour at most, Bezos' Blue Moon has yet to lift off, although a prototype is being readied for a moonshot later this year.

NASA is following April’s successful lunar flyaround by four astronauts with a docking trial run in orbit around Earth planned for next year. For that Artemis III mission, astronauts will practice docking their Orion capsule with Starship, Blue Moon or both.

A moon landing by two astronauts — Artemis IV — could follow as soon as 2028 using either Starship or Blue Moon, whichever lander is safer and ready first. It will be NASA’s first lunar landing with a crew since 1972’s Apollo 17. The goal this time is a moon base near the lunar south pole, staffed by astronauts as well as robots.

SpaceX is already taking reservations for private flights to the moon and Mars on Starship.

The world's first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and his wife signed up 3 1/2 years ago for a flight around the moon. The timing is uncertain.

This week, another wealthy space tourist — Chinese-born bitcoin investor Chun Wang — announced he will fly to Mars on Starship's first interplanetary mission. Wang previously chartered a SpaceX polar flight in a Dragon capsule last year and, along with his hand-picked crew, became the first to orbit above the north and south poles.

No price tag or date was revealed for his Mars cruise.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The sun rises behind SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The sun rises behind SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The sun rises behind SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Trucks with nitrogen line up to help prepare SpaceX's mega rocket Starship for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Trucks with nitrogen line up to help prepare SpaceX's mega rocket Starship for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The sun rises behind SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)