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Peregrine moon lander heads back toward Earth and should burn up in the atmosphere
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41D at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Jan. 8, 2024, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander. After suffering a propellant leak, the lander now appears to be destined to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images
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Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41D at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Jan. 8, 2024, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander. After suffering a propellant leak, the lander now appears to be destined to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images
The lunar lander whose much-anticipated mission was stymied last week due to a propellant leak is now expected to fly back toward Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.
Astrobotic Technology announced its latest assessment of the Peregrine lander’s trajectory on Saturday in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The company reiterated that “a soft landing on the Moon is not possible.”
Peregrine Mission 1 was to be the first time an American company sent a spacecraft to the moon — and the first time the U.S. returned to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.
The lander blasted off on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Monday.
But Astrobotic quickly identified a “propulsion anomaly” affecting Peregrine and later said the lander was facing a “critical loss of propellant.”
Though the propellant leak has slowed, Astrobotic said Saturday that it now expects the lander to burn up as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere, adding that it was assessing its options and would share additional updates with the public.
The Pittsburgh-based firm had previously said that though Peregrine wouldn’t reach the moon, it was hoping to continue flying the lander as close to the lunar surface as possible before running out of fuel.
“Sending a spacecraft to the Moon is not easy,” NASA science associate administrator Nicky Fox said in a tweet.
“I commend @Astrobotic’s hard work, resilience, and commitment as they navigate the challenges facing their mission. With any breakthrough innovation comes rewards and risks,” Fox added.
The mission is part of a NASA program that aims to help private space companies send government and commercial payloads into space and onto the lunar surface.
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Video: Another Night of Violent Protests Outside a Newark ICE Detention Center
new video loaded: Another Night of Violent Protests Outside a Newark ICE Detention Center
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Another Night of Violent Protests Outside a Newark ICE Detention Center
Protesters and the police clashed again outside of an ICE detention center in New Jersey on Saturday night.
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“Shut down Delaney Hall.” “Shut down Delaney Hall.” “Mikie Sherrill, do better. Mikie Sherrill, do better.”
By Cynthia Silva
May 31, 2026
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Family visitation partly restored at New Jersey ICE facility after week of protests
Family visitation at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center is being restored to at least part of the facility, New Jersey’s governor and US homeland security officials confirmed on Sunday morning, after a week during which heated demonstrations at the site were met with aggressive policing tactics.
Meanwhile, families of detained immigrants grappled with conflicting information about exactly whom among them would get visitation after the announcement from governor Mikie Sherrill and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). And local officials by Sunday had also indefinitely imposed an overnight curfew beginning at 9pm for a blocked-off area including Delaney Hall.
Delaney Hall visitation had been canceled after detained immigrants began carrying out an ongoing hunger and labor strike inside the detention center – which prompted protests outside the facility in support of those striking.
Facility staff confirmed to the Guardian on Sunday that what are known as units 1 and 3 were given visitation beginning at about noon and 2pm local time, respectively.
Unit 1 is a women’s section of the facility. Unit 2 is where the majority of the hunger-striking detainees are based, and it was unclear on Sunday whether it would have access to family visitation.
Sherrill’s office and the private prison company GEO Group, which runs the facility, did not respond to a request for comment. The road leading to Delaney Hall is now fully blocked by police, except for families attempting to visit detained loved ones, state officials announced on Sunday afternoon.
The governor’s announcement and subsequent confusion by families followed a night of violent clashes outside the facility between local officials and protesters. In the aftermath of that, Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, responded by activating a curfew for the area surrounding Delaney Hall.
The curfew would be in place nightly from 9pm to 6am “until further notice”, said Baraka’s office, which threatened arrest or legal action if people did not disperse during that time.
On Sunday morning, Sherrill and other top New Jersey state officials said that three people were arrested on Saturday night as a result of clashes with police. State officials said those arrest happened after a group of protesters attacked police and a barrier.
The Delaney Hall protests and clashes have become the latest flashpoint in the growing opposition to the aggressive anti-immigrant tactics Donald Trump’s administration has implemented nationwide throughout his second presidency.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains immigrants in its network of facilities across the US while the cases of those detained play out in courts.
ICE detention centers have been repeatedly criticized for harsh conditions.
Hakeem Jeffries, the top US House Democrat of nearby New York, conducted an oversight visit of Delaney Hall on Sunday, and said the conditions of confinement “shock the conscience”.
On 22 May, a group of immigrants detained inside Delaney Hall detention announced a hunger and labor strike inside the facility, demanding improved conditions, medical care, a meeting with Sherrill and for their immigration cases to proceed. Between 300 and 400 detainees have since participated in the strike.
Protests began shortly thereafter, with lawmakers attempting to visit the facility. The facility gained further national attention after ICE officers pepper-sprayed US senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, outside the facility during a skirmish there on Monday.
ICE officers have used pepper spray as well as stun guns throughout the demonstrations. They have also shoved and arrested protesters.
On Friday, Sherrill and other top New Jersey officials announced that state police would replace ICE officers outside Delaney Hall. The state police set up road blocks around half a mile on either side of the detention center.
That night clashes erupted after state police officers began moving in on protesters. State police officials on horseback moved through the crowd. Other state police officers in riot gear shot teargas canisters at protesters, aggressively shoving demonstrators and arresting six.
Advocates present at Delaney Hall on Saturday repeatedly criticized Sherrill, a Democrat, for her response to the protests.
“The escalation that happened [on Friday] was ten times worse than what ICE was doing to everyone prior nights,” Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigrant Coalition, said in an interview on Saturday outside of the facility. “If anything, the escalators were the state police.”
A statement from Sherill on Saturday announcing the restoration of family visitation at Delaney Hall claimed DHS had “met our demand”. But DHS refuted the governor’s statement.
“To be clear: Visitation was only suspended because of violent riots,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Now that we have a secure perimeter, visitation can resume.”
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See the Reflecting Pool’s Problems That Trump’s Renovations May Not Fix
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The illustrations of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s plumbing system were drawn from National Park Service documents produced as part of its renovations and reviewed by people with knowledge of the project. The layout of the expansion joints was derived from photographic evidence and a 2013 report released as part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
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