Things To Do In SW Florida

NASA, Boeing and United Launch Alliance had to scrub another attempt to send up astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the Crew Flight Test mission aboard the CST-100 Starliner on its first human spaceflight.

The duo saw the scrub on June 1 after previously attempting to launch on May 6 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 atop a ULA Atlas V rocket for a trip to the International Space Station.

Watch live: Boeing’s Starliner set for launch today on historic human spaceflight

When they do launch, the plan is for the pair to test out manual maneuvers and the spacecraft’s environmental controls on both the way up and ride down. NASA plans to keep them on the ISS for about eight days, aiming for a return to Earth for a landing in the desert in the southwestern United States.

By Barbara Marquand | NerdWallet

After starting a career in engineering in Boynton Beach, Florida, Moisey Abdurakhmanov was renting a home with friends when he decided he wanted his own place.

“I realized I was basically paying somebody else’s mortgage every month,” he recalls.

So when the lease was up, he moved back home with his parents, saved every dime he could and bought a house five months later in January 2021 — “easily one of the best decisions I’ve made.”

Many millennials are taking a similar path to homeownership. About a quarter (24%) of people ages 25 to 33 who bought a home between July 2022 and June 2023 said they moved in directly from a family member’s home, according to a National Association of Realtors’ survey. Last year 29% of people who planned to buy a home in the next 12 months had already moved in with their parents to save money, and another 22% said they’d consider doing so, according to a May 2023 survey by Realtor.com and Censuswide.

With high housing prices and rising mortgage rates, you might think saving for a house will take ages. Moving in with parents can speed up the process and eliminate the headache of synchronizing a home purchase with the end of a rental lease. read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — A rocket, spacecraft and a pair of NASA astronauts are getting ready to fly today on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner on its first ever human spaceflight.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are set to return to the launch pad on the Crew Flight Test mission of Starliner sitting atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

“The weather looks good. Atlas is standing tall, strong, and proud. The sun rises above. Feels like a good day to go to space,” said ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno on a post on X.

Liftoff is targeted for 12:25 p.m., taking the duo on a trip to the International Space Station, with a backup opportunity on Sunday. Teams began loading cryogenic fuel to the rocket just after 6:30 a.m.

“Butch and Suni are excited for today. As astronauts, especially Butch and Suni, consummate professionals, test pilots and they got their steely eyed game faces on but inside they are excited for today,” said NASA astronaut Mike Fincke during NASA’s live coverage that began at 8:15 a.m. on NASA TV and its social media channels. read more

Osceola County and the city of St. Cloud will vote this summer on new impact fees that would add more than $15,000 to the cost of a new home, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

The city and county on Thursday jointly released their latest impact fee study and will hold public workshops beginning Monday on the proposed fee schedule that more than doubles, and in some cases more than triples, mobility fees for residential construction.

Assistant County Manager Tawny Olore acknowledged the rates would likely be the highest in the state. Osceola County already has the highest school impact fees in Florida.

For single-family homes, the county is proposing to raise the mobility fee from $9,999 per home to $25,012 — a 150% increase. St. Cloud’s proposed rate would increase from $6,442 per home to $20,866, resulting in a 224% increase. The rates for townhomes and apartments would jump an average of about $10,000 per unit.

County planners and their consultants from HNTB presented the recommendations to the county’s Growth Management Task Force, explaining that both the city and county could declare “extraordinary circumstances” to exempt them from state regulations that limit impact fee increases to 50% and requires they be phased in over four years. read more