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NASA named 10 new astronaut candidates for its 24th class of astronauts Monday, including one person who has already been to space.

Anna Menon, 39, a SpaceX engineer from Houston, was one of the four crew on Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Dawn mission that launched from Kennedy Space Center in 2024 and was one of the six women and four men announced to join the astronaut corps.

The others were Ben Bailey, 38, of Charlottesville, Virginia; Lauren Edgar, 40, of Sammamish, Washington; Adam Fuhrmann, 35, of Leesburg, Virginia; Cameron Jones, 35, of Savanna, Illinois; Yuri Kubo, 40, of Columbus, Indiana; Rebecca Lawler, 38, of Little Elm, Texas; Imelda Muller, 34, of Copake Falls, New York; Erin Overcash, 34, of Goshen, Kentucky; and Katherine Spies, 43, of San Diego.

“We picked the best and brightest, the most skilled, the best looking, the best personalities to take these 10 spots, and again, you represent your country,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy during the ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “You are America’s best and brightest and we’re going to need American’s best and brightest because we have a bold exploration plan for the future.” read more

By The Associated Press

Chipmaker Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership announced Monday that will add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia AI data centers to ramp up the computing power for the owner of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

Per the letter of intent signed by the companies, the first gigawatt of Nvidia systems will be deployed in the second half of 2026. Nvidia and OpenAI said they would be finalizing the details of the arrangement in the coming weeks.

“This partnership complements the deep work OpenAI and Nvidia are already doing with a broad network of collaborators, including Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank and Stargate partners, focused on building the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure,” the companies said in a release.

The Nvidia-OpenAI partnership comes about 10 days after OpenAI said it had reached a new tentative agreement that will give Microsoft a $100 billion equity stake in its for-profit corporation. OpenAI is technically controlled by its nonprofit. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s appointee to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors said Monday that the central bank’s key interest rate should be much lower than its current 4.1% level, staking out a position far different than his colleagues.

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Stephen Miran, who is also a top economic adviser to Trump, said in remarks to the Economic Club of New York that sharp declines in immigration, rising tariff revenue, and an aging population all suggest that the Fed’s rate should be closer to 2.5% instead. According to projections released last week, that’s almost a full percentage point lower than any of his 18 colleagues on the Fed’s rate-setting committee, an unusually high divergence. read more

Legoland Florida theme park has revealed the name of its under-construction, space-themed indoor roller coaster. The ride, set to open in early 2026, will be called Galacticoaster.

“Galacticoaster marks the first indoor coaster built inside the main park since Legoland Florida opened in 2011. From the very beginning, we aimed to create an immersive experience for our guests from the moment they step inside,” Blake Boyter, senior project manager at Merlin Magic Making, said in a news release.

“From the engineering precision to the Lego DNA woven throughout, guests will experience more Lego storytelling, more excitement, and more out-of-this-world fun than ever before,” he said.

The Winter Haven park, owned by Merlin Entertainments Group, also said Galacticoaster will be the “most ambitious and technically advanced ride ever built at any Legoland Resort.”

Legoland also released some stats for the family-friendly coaster. It will have almost 1,500 feet of track, reaching a height of 50 feet.  (Sister attraction Dragon is similar length and stands at 42.7 feet, according to Roller Coaster Data Base.)  Galacticoaster’s 48 track sections are supported by 120 columns. The building’s footprint is the size of 10 basketball courts. The station’s conveyor belt weighs 9 tons. read more

By ALAN SUDERMAN

President Donald Trump said prominent billionaires – including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and tech founder Michael Dell – could be part of a deal in which the U.S. will take control of the social video platform TikTok.

Trump namedropped the 94-year-old Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, the head of Fox News and News Corp, as part of a group of possible participants in a deal during an interview recorded Friday and aired Sunday on Fox News.

“I think they’re going to be in the group. A couple of others. Really great people, very prominent people,” Trump said. “And they’re also American patriots, you know, they love this country. I think they’re going to do a really good job.”

Trump’s disclosure of the potential involvement of the Murdochs and Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, is the latest twist in a fast-moving potential deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S.

Trump also said Sunday that tech giant Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison was part of the same group. His involvement had been previously disclosed. On Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Oracle would be responsible for the app’s data and security and that Americans will control six of the seven seats for a planned board. read more