Things To Do In SW Florida

SpaceX has reset the countdown clock for its next human spaceflight, targeting an early Sunday morning launch of the private Axiom Space Ax-4 mission.

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with a new Crew Dragon capsule looks to take four private astronauts on a trip to the International Space Station with liftoff at 3:42 a.m. from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A with a backup opportunity Monday at 3:20 a.m.

The first-stage booster is making its second flight and will aim for a recovery landing back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1 — meaning there could be some early morning sonic booms on the Space Coast and into Central Florida.

SpaceX and Axiom Space, which were halted in their attempt to launch last week, have been waiting on NASA for the OK as space station partner Roscosmos continued to monitor repairs to a years-old leak on the Russian side of the orbiting lab.

“The change in a targeted launch date provides NASA time to continue evaluating space station operations after recent repair work in the aft (back) most segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module,” NASA posted Wednesday. read more

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

MCCLEAN, Va. (AP) — The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage eased for the third week in a row, a welcome trend for prospective homebuyers at a time when elevated borrowing costs remain a drag on the housing market.

Related Articles

• 
  Port Canaveral-bound Harmony of the Seas among 3 Royal Caribbean ships getting makeovers

• 
  Smaller amusement parks hope for a strong summer under the shadow of tariffs

• 
  Nippon Steel finalizes $15B takeover of US Steel after sealing national security agreement

• 
  Practical ways to tackle overspending

• 
  Amazon hopes to deliver 10,000 robotaxis annually with new factory, challenging Waymo

The long-term rate fell to 6.81% from 6.84% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Wednesday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.87%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell. The average rate eased to 5.96% from 5.97% last week. A year ago, it was 6.13%, according to Freddie Mac. read more

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, AP Business Writer

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy anticipates generative artificial intelligence will reduce its corporate workforce in the next few years as the online giant begins to increase its usage of the technology.

“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said in a message to employees. “It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

The executive said that Amazon has more than 1,000 generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but that figure is a “small fraction” of what it plans to build.

Jassy encouraged employees to get on board with the e-commerce company’s AI plans.

“As we go through this transformation together, be curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can, participate in your team’s brainstorms to figure out how to invent for our customers more quickly and expansively, and how to get more done with scrappier teams,” he said. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its key rate unchanged Wednesday as it waits for additional information on how tariffs and other potential disruptions will affect the economy this year.

The Fed’s policymakers signaled they still expect to cut rates twice this year, even as they also project that President Donald Trump’s import duties will push inflation higher. They also expect growth to slow and unemployment to edge up, according to their latest quarterly projections released Wednesday.

Fed policymakers had cut their rate three times late last year but have since have been on hold. Inflation has cooled steadily since January, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference that tariffs are likely to reverse that progress and push inflation higher in the coming months. The Fed expects the bump to inflation will be temporary, but they want to see more data to be sure.

“Increases in tariffs this year are likely to push up prices and weigh on economic activity,” Powell said. “This is something we know is coming, we just don’t know the size of it.” read more