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SpaceX lined up and knocked out the 14th launch from the Space Coast on Tuesday afternoon.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:53 p.m.

The first-stage booster flew for the 18th time and made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

Watch Falcon 9 launch 21 @Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities https://t.co/ZXunmg5QPl

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 11, 2025

SpaceX has flown all but one of the launches from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral this year.

That includes all five Falcon 9 launches from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A and eight Falcon 9 launches from SLC-40. The other launch was the debut flight from Blue Origin’s New Glenn last month from Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36.

Ready for 156 Space Coast launches this year, Space Force targets bottlenecks

 

The company has also launched six times from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, including a Starlink mission earlier Tuesday for a total of 19 across all of its launch pads on both coasts in just 42 days so far this year. read more

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday, several U.S. officials said. The dismissal comes a day after his office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds.

The White House gave no reason for the firing of Inspector General Paul Martin, one of the officials said. The dismissal was first reported by CNN. The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Inspectors general are typically independently funded watchdogs attached to U.S. agencies, who are tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at government agencies. The Trump administration earlier purged more than a dozen inspectors general.

On Monday, Martin’s office issued a flash report warning that the Trump administration’s funding freeze and staff actions within USAID had left oversight of the humanitarian aid “largely nonoperational.” read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Trader Joe’s and other grocers are limiting the number of eggs customers can buy across the U.S., citing limited supply caused by the ongoing bird flu outbreak.

Trader Joe’s is capping purchases to one carton per customer each day, the Monrovia, California-based chain confirmed. That limit applies to all of Trader Joe’s locations across the country.

“We hope these limits will help to ensure that as many of our customers who need eggs are able to purchase them when they visit Trader Joe’s,” the company said in a statement sent to The Associated Press Tuesday.

Photos of in-store notices about eggs purchase limits at retailers nationwide have swirled around online in recent weeks. In addition to Trader Joe’s, consumers and several local media outlets have also reported varying limits seen at stores like Costco, Whole Foods, Kroger and Aldi locations.

When each limit went into effect is unclear, however. And not all are being implemented nationally. A spokesperson for Kroger, for example, confirmed that the supermarket giant doesn’t currently have “enterprise-wide limits” in place — but said some of regional divisions and store banners are asking customers to cap egg purchases to two dozen per trip. read more

By KIMBERLY KINDY and BRIAN SLODYSKO

WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk has long railed against the U.S. government, saying a crushing number of federal investigations and safety programs have stymied Tesla, his electric car company, and its efforts to create fleets of robotaxis and other self-driving automobiles.

By HANNAH FINGERHUT and DAVID A. LIEB

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A renewed and expanded effort from chemical giant Bayer to shield itself from lawsuits that claim its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer brought dozens of protesters to the Iowa Capitol building Monday begging lawmakers to reject it.