Things To Do In SW Florida

While representatives from NASA, the Space Force and commercial companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin descended on Orlando this past week for the annual SpaceCom conference, there was no shortage of action on launch pads, test sites and 254 miles above the Earth.

Here’s a rundown of 15 nuggets of space news for the week:

1. Lit up: SpaceX managed the seventh launch from the Space Coast on Tuesday, and 10th of the year for the company among Florida and California launch pads. Lifting off from Kennedy Space Center, it carted up competitor Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft that then docked with the International Space Station with 8,200 pounds of science and supplies early Thursday, It was the first time SpaceX has flown Cygnus, making its 20th resupply mission to the ISS. Most of those missions have been flown on Northrop’s Antares rockets from Virginia, but Russian and Ukrainian rocket part supply issues mean SpaceX will be flying at least two more missions from Florida until a new version of the rocket can be built with American-made engines by Firefly Aerospace. read more

Will the grassroots effort to save Split Oak Forest imperil neighboring preserves of spectacular nature?

In all of the years of raging controversy over a road proposed to cross a corner of Split Oak Forest in Orange and Osceola counties east of Orlando International Airport, that question has barely been scrutinized in public.

Road backers are offering to donate a parcel of 1,550 acres to buffer and protect Split Oak and adjoining conservation lands – if the road is allowed to cross the forest. They say they will put intense commercial development on that parcel next to those conservation lands if the road is rejected.

Left undeveloped, that 1,550-acre parcel also could help create corridors for panthers, red-cockaded woodpeckers, indigo snakes and other wildlife, spanning from Split Oak, to nearby Moss Park and Isle of Pine Preserve, to other, bigger conservation lands.

While the road’s opponents have rallied public and political support to defend Split Oak, the future of Orange County’s adjoining treasures hangs in the balance, all but unnoticed. read more