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Month: March 2024

SpaceX gives new Canaveral crew access arm a test run with cargo launch

SpaceX gives new Canaveral crew access arm a test run with cargo launch

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SpaceX recently completed work on its new crew access arm at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station that doubles its capacity to launch astronauts from the Space Coast, but its first use was not for humans. Instead, it flew up another cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station on Thursday.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:55 p.m. on the CRS-30 mission.

The first-stage booster for the flight made its sixth trip to space and another landing back at nearby Landing Zone 1, bringing sonic booms to parts of Central Florida.

SpaceX has not used Canaveral for a Dragon launch in more than four years and that was for a previous design of its spacecraft. All launches since have come from nearby Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A, where all 13 of its Crew Dragon spaceflights have had to fly, until now.

SpaceX’s Sarah Walker, director of Dragon mission management, has worked on the cargo Dragon missions since they began in 2012. read more

In 2023, Florida insurers turned first profit in seven years, new report says

In 2023, Florida insurers turned first profit in seven years, new report says

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In 2023, Florida’s domestic insurers turned a net profit for the first time in seven years, a new report by marketing intelligence company S&P Global said.

The study of “around 50” Florida-based insurers credited the turnaround to investment income, a mild hurricane year, and tort reforms that took effect in March 2023.

The group reported $147.3 million in net income for 2023, according to the analysis by Jason Woleben of S&P Global Market Intelligence that was released on Wednesday. That compares to net losses of more than $1 billion in each of the previous two years.

The results are likely to renew hopes that insurers might soon begin to reduce property insurer rates for Florida’s homeowners.

The report quoted Universal Insurance Holdings CEO Stephen Donaghy as telling investors during the company’s third-quarter earnings report last year that future rate reductions in Florida might be possible.

Yet Universal Property & Casualty, the flagship company of Universal Insurance Holdings, was among just four of Florida’s top 22 private-market insurers, as ranked by direct premiums written, to post a net loss in 2023. read more