Things To Do In SW Florida

If 2023 felt like a lot of launches, by the time 2024 is over, Floridians may hurt their necks looking over their shoulders for the tell-tale streaks of light carving their way up from the Space Coast.

With seven launches in the books by the end of January from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the Space Coast is on pace for 84 launches for the year, which would surpass the record 72 it saw in 2023, which was in turn a big jump from the 57 it had in 2022.

But a new number is being tossed around this week by Florida officials.

“We have no signs of slowing down. So we look to 2024. We’re anticipating over 111 launches from Florida Space Coast,” said Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez during a speech Wednesday during the commercial space symposium SpaceCom at the Orange County Convention Center. “On any given day,  you can look up and see one of those amazing launches.”

Núñez chairs the board of directors for Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development agency. She noted that the state accounted for nearly 68% of all U.S. launches in 2023. The state also has about 160 business development projects worth about $3 billion in statewide capital investment, she said. read more

NASA announced the four members for the planned August SpaceX mission to rotate crew on the International Space Station and it includes the first member of the U.S. Space Force flying to orbit.

The crew member, which Space Force calls a guardian, has already been to space, but for NASA as a member of the Air Force.

Piloting the SpaceX Crew-9 flight will be U.S. Space Force Col. Nick Hague, who previously had a scary initial ride the Air Force technically considered having reached space in 2018 that ended with an abort. It happened as he and a Russian crewmate cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin aboard a Soyuz capsule blasted away from a malfunctioning booster after launch from Kazakhstan.

“It went from normal to something was wrong pretty quick,” he said after the abort. “We weren’t going to make it to orbit that day, so the mission changed to getting back down on the ground as safely as we could.”

The altitude of the Soyuz capsule passed the 50-mile mark the U.S. considers for awarding astronaut status, although it’s shy of the Karman line, which is the internationally recognized line for having made it to space at around 62 miles high. read more