Things To Do In SW Florida

SpaceX is geared to send up the 12th launch from the Space Coast on Saturday afternoon.

A Falcon 9 rocket is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 carrying 24 of the company’s Starlink satellites at the opening of a four-hour window from 4:59-8:59 p.m.

Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts better than 95% chance for good conditions, and the same if delayed 24 hours.

The first-stage booster for the mission is flying for the 13th time and will attempt a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic.

All but one of the launches so far in 2024 have come from SpaceX with United Launch Alliance’s debut mission for its Vulcan Centaur being the lone other launch.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company could fly as many as 150 Falcon-class launches across its three pads in Florida and California in 2024.

The next launch from Kennedy Space Center won’t be until early Friday, though, as SpaceX prepares for its next human spaceflight, the Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station. read more

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is home to one. Space Center Houston is another.

Lifelike bronze statues honoring some of the most famous astronauts in history have been finding homes in the space hubs and museums of America in recent years, and documentary filmmaker Steven Barber has had a major hand in each of their placements.

Now he wants to bring a statue commemorating Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, to Central Florida.

His top target is Orlando International Airport, which acknowledged the spirit behind the push, but noted any sort of approval would have to go through a process.

“While we appreciate Mr. Barber’s passion in locating a monument at Orlando International to honor beloved astronaut Sally Ride, the preliminary discussions last year were just that – preliminary,” according to a statement from the airport’s public relations team. “Commissioned and major art pieces at Orlando International undergo a rigorous, pre-established selection process and must fall within our art program policies.” read more

A day after a private company made history with a soft landing on the moon, company officials detailed what they think they know from limited data gathered and lack of imagery about the lander, including the likelihood that is on its side.

Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander Odysseus touched down Thursday at 6:23 p.m. EST near the south pole of moon, making it the first time a commercial company had achieved the feat. It also marked the first soft landing by a U.S.-based moon lander since Apollo 17 in 1972.

“Just to clear up some confusion, we thought we were upright,” said company CEO Steve Altemus during a press conference Friday, which was what the company declared in the hours after touchdown.

He said overnight data collection, though, showed the the lander was at a severe angle and likely on its side, possibly even resting on some sort of rock on the surface.

“So that’s what tells us with fairly certain terms, the orientation of the vehicle, and hopefully we’ll get a picture here this weekend,” Altemus said. That would come from both cameras on board and from a flyby this weekend from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is expected to give a precise location and better view of the lander’s condition. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN (AP Technology Writer)

Google apologized Friday for its faulty rollout of a new artificial intelligence image-generator, acknowledging that in some cases the tool would “overcompensate” in seeking a diverse range of people even when such a range didn’t make sense.

The partial explanation for why its images put people of color in historical settings where they wouldn’t normally be found came a day after Google said it was temporarily stopping its Gemini chatbot from generating any images with people in them. That was in response to a social media outcry from some users claiming the tool had an anti-white bias in the way it generated a racially diverse set of images in response to written prompts.

“It’s clear that this feature missed the mark,” said a blog post Friday from Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president who runs Google’s search engine and other businesses. “Some of the images generated are inaccurate or even offensive. We’re grateful for users’ feedback and are sorry the feature didn’t work well.” read more

By Sally French | NerdWallet

As Jessica Malerman was enjoying a meal on board a Royal Caribbean cruise in October, another passenger noticed her T-shirt from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The two struck up a conversation, and Malerman says they connected immediately.

“That’s when it hit me,” Malerman says. “This is the perfect avenue to get a group of like-minded people — on board a cruise ship.”

Malerman, who works as a travel advisor for Marvelous Mouse Travels, will co-host a fan-led, four-night group cruise called “In My Cruise Era” with Royal Caribbean this fall. The cruise is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, but it’s set to be a celebration of the pop superstar. Malerman and her colleagues have Taylor Swift events planned for every night of the sailing, including a friendship bracelet swap, a themed dance party, karaoke, trivia and Eras outfit nights.

Not only do Swift’s actual concerts drive enormous demand for travel, but the hype surrounding them has created a market for trips like these, too. read more