Things To Do In SW Florida

The Space Coast is set for another busy year in 2025 with new moon missions, new spacecraft and the debut of a new rocket.

Meanwhile, NASA could see billionaire Jared Isaacman confirmed as its new administrator while prep continues for the Artemis II human spaceflight to orbit the moon in 2026.

Coming off a record 93 launches in 2024 among pads at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the Space Coast launch total in 2025 could climb past 100 with the continued frenetic pace set by SpaceX, an increase from United Launch Alliance and the debut of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.

Among the missions are at least four human spaceflights, including one with a new SpaceX Crew Dragon, three commercial lunar landers and the debut of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spacecraft on a cargo mission to the International Space Station.

Here’s a rundown of the top space stories coming in 2025:

A new rocket: Jeff Bezos’ game of catchup to Elon Musk could get a big push with the debut launch of Blue Origin’s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. The first launch could come soon with the Federal Aviation Administration approving its license at the end of 2024. read more

By Dave Lieber, The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

If you’re someone who manages the family’s finances, worries about identity theft and values maintaining a good credit score, The Watchdog has the latest updates for you.

Specifically, let’s dive into what credit reports and scores really mean, how you can access them and why staying on top of them is so important.

I recently tuned in to a town hall on consumerism sponsored by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Much of it was old hat, but my ears perked when I heard one speaker casually mention that you could get a free copy of your credit report once a week.

Bam! It used to be you get a free copy of your credit reports every 12 months.

How did this happen? The rules were temporarily suspended during the pandemic. Afterward, they were kept in place.

It’s a little confusing because the government-sponsored website — AnnualCreditReport.com — is still keeping its name. It should be WeeklyCreditReport.com, but the feds have spent a lot of time and money promoting the website. read more

Brian Baker, CFA | (TNS) Bankrate.com

Stocks have mostly been on a tear in 2024, with the S&P 500 up more than 23% as of mid-December. But the strong performance has left stocks trading at elevated valuations, and the Federal Reserve has signaled it needs to see more progress on inflation in order to cut interest rates further in 2025.

By The Associated Press

Mexican airline Aeromexico had the world’s best record for on-time arrivals in 2024, according to an annual ranking released Thursday. Delta Air Lines scored the highest among U.S. carriers despite a computer outage that caused thousands of flight cancellations in July.

Aviation-data provider Cirium said in a report that nearly 87% of Aeromexico flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival, a widely used measure of on-time performance among airlines.

Saudia, the flagship carrier of Saudi Arabia, ranked second worldwide, with an on-time performance rate of just over 86%, according to Cirium.

Cirium has rated airlines for timeliness for 16 years. CEO Jeremy Bowen said 2024 was a difficult year for airlines due to severe weather patterns and the summer technology outage. The winning airlines therefore deserved credit for getting most passengers to their destinations on time, Bowen said.

Atlanta-based Delta achieved an on-time rate of more than 83%, good enough to rank third worldwide. The next-best U.S. carriers were United Airlines, at nearly 81%, and Alaska Airlines, at just over 79%, Cirium said. read more