Things To Do In SW Florida

A gaggle of students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh traveled to Florida last month during their winter break.

The students, many of them studying to be engineers and scientists, went there to watch a rocket launch that would send a small 4.8-pound robotic rover that they had helped build on its journey to the moon. Afterward, they hoped to have time for some sun and fun, renting a large house just three blocks from the beach.

Their trip did not go as planned.

“We never saw the beach,” said Nikolai Stefanov, a senior studying physics and computer science.

The rover, named Iris, headed toward the moon on schedule in a perfect inaugural flight of Vulcan, a brand-new rocket. But the spacecraft carrying the rover malfunctioned soon after the launch, and the students turned their rental house into a makeshift mission control as they improvised how to get the most out of the rover’s doomed journey.

“We had a mission,” said Connor Colombo, the chief engineer for Iris. “It wasn’t the mission we thought. And in fact, maybe that made it more interesting because we had to do a lot of thinking on our feet, and I’m really grateful to have had that.” read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — SpaceX had to wait a day, but it ended up knocking out a pristine launch in the wee hours Thursday for Intuitive Machines, aiming to be the first commercial company to successfully make a soft landing on the moon.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 1:05 a.m. from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A on the IM-1 mission carrying the Houston-based company’s Nova-C lunar lander named Odysseus headed for a quick trip to the moon aiming for a Feb. 22 arrival.

Liftoff of IM-1! pic.twitter.com/Knl3Y1sGo2

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 15, 2024

SpaceX had called off an attempt early Wednesday because of issues loading cryogenic methane into the lunar lander at the launch pad, but fueling went off without a hitch a day later.

SpaceX launches Space Force mission from Cape Canaveral

The first-stage booster for the mission made its 18th flight with a recovery touchdown at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1 bringing an overnight sonic boom to the Space Coast just hours after a Wednesday evening launch and landing of another SpaceX Falcon 9 flying a mission for the Space Force. read more

Disney’s highly-touted first affordable housing project has failed to win over its would-be neighbors, who worry the entertainment giant’s 1,410-unit development will worsen traffic and crowd community schools.

Ahead of the initial public hearing at the county zoning board Thursday, many residents of West Orange County emailed officials in opposition to Walt Disney Imagineering’s request for a land-use change to allow apartment buildings on the 80-acre site.

“I completely understand the need and support the addition of affordable housing, but this is just not the location for it,” said Kelly Vanarsdall, who sells real estate and resides in a neighborhood less than two miles away.

The project received a far friendlier reception in April 2022 when it was announced amid a housing crisis so widespread that Orange County commissioners proposed a rent-control ordinance that voters approved but an appeals court struck down.

Mayor Jerry Demings saw the Disney project as an effort to “move the needle” to close an affordability gap. A Disney online news site, disneyconnect.com, said of the project, “we envision a place where cost-burdened renters can focus on their personal growth and prosperity by gaining access to affordable housing.” read more