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A commercial company’s lunar lander that launched from Kennedy Space Center last week has made a successful entry into the moon’s orbit on Wednesday ahead of its Thursday attempt to stick the landing.

Houston-based Intuitive Machines posted on social media that its Nova-C lander named Odysseus, which blasted off from KSC on Feb. 15 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9, had performed a 408-second main engine burn that put it into a successful lunar orbit of an altitude of about 57 miles.

“Odysseus is now closer to the moon than the end-to-end distance driving across Space City, Houston, TX,” the company posted on X noting it had already traveled more than 620,000 miles in the last seven days.

Odysseus completed its scheduled 408-second main engine lunar orbit insertion burn and is currently in a 92 km circular lunar orbit. Initial data indicates the 800 m/s burn was completed within 2 m/s accuracy. 1/4 (21FEB2024 0920 CST) pic.twitter.com/ZoFStQD3cX

— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 21, 2024 read more

When you reach 65 and become eligible for Medicare, you will be faced with an important decision. Should you enroll in traditional Medicare with a Medigap supplement, or should you choose Medicare Advantage?

A new report prepared by the Employee Benefit Research Institute can help.

Don’t base your decision on television ads. For example, you will see many ads for Medicare Advantage and almost none for traditional Medicare. Insurance agents receive higher commissions for Medicare Advantage options; that is a bias you should be aware of.

The EBRI report estimates that a couple enrolled in traditional Medicare with a Medigap supplement will need $351,000 to have a 90% chance of covering their medical expenses in retirement. The report also indicates that a couple enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, run by private insurers, will need $189,000.

These cost estimates do not cover long-term care costs, assisted living costs or home health aides — none of which are covered by Medicare.

Based on these cost estimates, it appears that the Medicare Advantage option seems more cost-effective than the traditional Medicare plus Medigap option. However, you should not make a decision based only on averages. read more

A Lakeland developer who bought the former Grenelefe Golf and Tennis Club in Haines City wants to build new homes and apartments on the former resort and golf course, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

The resort in northeast Polk County sprawls across 1,273 acres and once had three thriving golf courses, 22 tennis courts, a convention center, three restaurants, four swimming pools, a planned marina on Lake Marion and 417 resort-owned rental condominiums. Timeshare giant Westgate Resorts bought the property in 2004 and operated it for nearly two decades.

Westgate had been trying to unload it for years and in early 2022, the company found two buyers: Alya Grenelefe LLC paid $31.5 million for 417 condominiums, and Grenelefe Resort Development LLC, led by Ronin Assets founder Scott House, paid $3.1 million for the golf and tennis facilities, 15 lake loft condos and the private utility that services the entire community.

House will meet with Polk County’s Development Review Committee this week to unveil his ambitious plan to redevelop the property with nearly 1,900 homes, townhomes, duplexes and apartments on the 536.6 acres. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN (AP Economics Writer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to keep up with customer demand, Batesville Tool & Die began seeking 70 people to hire last year. It wasn’t easy. Attracting factory workers to a community of 7,300 in the Indiana countryside was a tough sell, especially having to compete with big-name manufacturers nearby like Honda and Cummins Engine.

Job seekers were scarce.

“You could count on one hand how many people in the town were unemployed,” said Jody Fledderman, the CEO. “It was just crazy.’’

Batesville Tool & Die managed to fill just 40 of its vacancies.

Enter the robots. The company invested in machines that could mimic human workers and in vision systems, which helped its robots “see” what they were doing.

The Batesville experience and others like it have been replicated countlessly across the United States for the past couple of years. Chronic worker shortages have led many companies to invest in machines to do some of the work they can’t find people to do. They’ve also been training the workers they do have to use advanced technology so they can produce more with less. read more

By KEN SWEET (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans have become increasingly reliant on their credit cards since the pandemic. So much so that Capital One is willing to bet more than $30 billion that they won’t break the habit.

Capital One Financial announced Monday that it would buy Discover Financial Services for $35 billion. The combination could potentially shake up the payments industry, which is largely dominated by Visa and Mastercard.

For customers of the companies, it might eventually mean bigger perks and more merchant acceptance of Discover cards, and potentially lead to more competition in the payments industry. But most of the benefits will be going to the companies themselves, as well as the merchants who accept these cards.

Some of the biggest issuers of credit cards are banks, like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup. But Capital One and Discover are first and foremost credit card companies — like American Express, but with different clientele. They have tens of millions of customers and target their products at Americans who do not travel heavily outside the U.S. and would like to get more value out of their everyday purchases like gas, groceries and domestic travel. In other words, people who typically don’t carry premium credit cards. read more