Things To Do In SW Florida

The first human spaceflight of the year is headed back home as the four crew of the Axiom Space Ax-3 mission departed the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom on Wednesday making their way back for a Friday morning splashdown off the coast of Florida.

The quartet spent nearly 18 days docked to the ISS after launching from Kennedy Space Center back on Jan. 18 and arriving two days later. On board are Axiom chief astronaut and mission commander Michael López-Alegría along with Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey and European Space Agency project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden.

They now have a nearly 48 hour ride home set to splash down in one of seven locations in either the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean that have yet to be announced.

“We hope you guys had a wonderful time on the station,” said SpaceX mission control on departure. “We’re looking forward to seeing your smiling faces in person.”

López-Alegría is a former NASA astronaut completing his sixth trip to space, and became the first person making a repeat ride on SpaceX’s Dragon having also commanded Axiom’s first private mission to the ISS in 2022. read more

Nominations are now open for the Orlando Sentinel’s 2024 Top Workplaces program, which seeks to identify and recognize the area’s top companies and what employees say makes them great places to work.

Any company, nonprofit, public organization or government agency with 35 or more employees in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Sumter, Polk, Brevard, Volusia, Flagler or Marion counties may participate in Top Workplaces.

Company owners or workers may nominate themselves at OrlandoSentinel.com/nominate or by calling 407-428-2696. The deadline for entries is March 8, and winners will be announced in September.

The Top Workplaces process involves having employees evaluate their companies with a short, 24-question survey. Companies will be surveyed through May..

For the sixth consecutive year, the Sentinel is partnering with Energage as the program’s survey company. Last year Energage collected results from more than 31,000 employees locally.

Based on the surveys, a record 116 companies and organizations in Central Florida were recognized as Top Workplaces for 2023. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis had thrown his weight behind legislation to ban what he and Republican colleagues are calling “fake meat” – beef, chicken, pork and seafood grown from animal cells cultivated in a lab.

“You need meat, OK? We are going to have meat in Florida,” DeSantis said at a recent news conference while blasting corporations for forcing “woke” ideology on consumers. “You can’t have fake meat. It doesn’t work.”

But lab-cultivated meat isn’t grown, researched or sold in Florida, and it isn’t fake. The federal government has approved it for sale after years of testing but has licensed just two companies to sell it so far.

So the day Floridians could see it is a long way off.

“This is going to feed people on their way to Mars,” House bill sponsor Rep. Danny Alvarez, R- Hillsborough County, told the members of a committee.

So, why do DeSantis and lawmakers have such a beef with cultured meat?

They’ve said it’s to protect Florida’s cattle industry, but they also appear to be serving up a fresh batch of red meat hot off the grill for their conservative base. read more

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced it was laying off 530 on staff or about 8% of its workforce on Tuesday after expected congressional budget cuts kneecapped one of its biggest endeavors, the Mars Sample Return mission.

The Pasadena, California institution is one of NASA’s major science mission hubs, the home to the majority of Mars missions including the Perseverance rover currently collecting soil and rock samples as part of that mission.

JPL Director Laurie Leshin said fiscal wrangling in Washington has led to an expected budget for that mission of only $300 million, which is less than one third the Biden administration’s requested $949 million for fiscal year 2024, which began last Oct. 1.

While a version in the House opts for the full request, the Senate’s version is at the much lower amount, and both the White House and NASA have directed JPL to begin operating with an expected $649 million shortfall.

NASA spent $822 million on the sample return mission in FY 2023. The mission calls for a lander to make its way to Mars and collect the samples being gathered by Perseverance, after which they will be launched back off the planet to meet up with an orbiting probe that will then send them on their way back to Earth. The mission has been a priority for NASA after its top ranking in the latest Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, which helps guide NASA science mission choices. read more

The CEO of state-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp. on Tuesday pushed back against a legislative bill that would require the company to provide hurricane coverage for anyone in the state who wants it.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Spencer Roach, a Republican from Lee County, and Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Democrat from Broward County, would make the so-called “insurer of last resort” into the insurer of first resort for windstorm coverage.

But during a workshop held by the state House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee, Citizens CEO Tim Cerio said the bill could cause the company’s reinsurance costs to skyrocket by 645% — from $628 million to $5.6 billion if 100% of Florida properties were covered.

“We don’t even know if there’s enough capacity in the reinsurance market” to provide needed coverage, Cerio said.

Roach and Cassel argued that expanding Citizens’ ability to write wind coverage from 29 counties to the entire state will be necessary to prevent a collapse of Florida’s insurance market after a series of catastrophic storms. read more