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MERRITT ISLAND — Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has sunk $3 billion to build up its manufacturing plant and launch pad on the Space Coast in the last decade. On Friday, it invited visitors for a rare media tour of the plant where it constructs its heavy-lift New Glenn rockets while touting its latest addition: the facility where the company will construct its Blue Moon lander to take astronauts back to the lunar surface.

“We have to win this space race. This is the reason why we’re so invested,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, chair of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, who persuaded Blue Origin to open the factory floor of its massive Brevard County facility. “You can’t help but be confident after seeing firsthand what’s happening here at Blue Origin.”

Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are the competing commercial companies to give NASA working human landing systems for its Artemis program. SpaceX’s Starship is contracted to be the lander for both Artemis III and IV, while Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 lander is tapped to fly on Artemis V. read more

By Redd Brown, Bloomberg News

Lisa Reich studied hard to become a forensic accountant. She worked in the field for eight years, and enjoyed interacting with her clients. But the divorce cases she often dealt with were becoming depressing.

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One day, she wandered into a local travel agency looking to book a trip and got chatting — they offered her a role as an independent contractor that day.

“I’m working half the hours and making quadruple my salary,” said Reich, 42, who started her own agency in 2021 and said her annual sales have been around $3 million to $3.5 million for the past three years.

“When I was moving fields, my mother said to me ‘You’ve got a master’s in accounting, what am I going to tell the family?’” said Reich. “She’s eating her words now.” read more

By RIO YAMAT

Boeing is getting back the ability to perform final safety inspections on 737 Max jetliners and certify the planes for flight more than six years after crashes of the then-new model killed 346 people, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

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The FAA said it decided to restore the aerospace company’s authorization to issue airworthiness certificates for Max and 787 Dreamliner passenger planes starting Monday following “a thorough review of Boeing’s ongoing production quality.” read more

Family and friends of Kevin Rodriguez Zavala wiped away tears and hugged each other at a Kissimmee funeral home on Friday, as they remembered the fun-loving man who relished visiting theme parks.

A large monitor displayed hundreds of photos — one after another — that showed Zavala at Central Florida attractions. One showed him with a huge grin in front of Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney World wearing a Star Wars cap. In another, he held up a colorful fruity drink while surrounded by family members. A short video showed Zavala about to board a ride at Disney and laughing.

His family this week described the 32-year-old Kissimmee man as a “roller coaster freak.”

Zavala died Sept. 17 after he lost consciousness while riding the new Stardust Racers roller coaster at Epic Universe.

Nearly a hundred people filled a large memorial room at the Funeraria San Juan funeral home to remember Zavala. A Catholic priest began with a brief prayer service in Spanish, saying that though Zavala used a wheelchair because of a lifelong spinal condition, he was proud and never let that hold him back. read more

By DIDI TANG, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of a House committee that pushed for the law demanding TikTok be spun off from its Chinese owners has requested an urgent briefing from the White House, one day after Trump signed an executive order supporting a proposed deal that would put the popular social video platform under U.S. ownership.

In a statement released Friday, Rep. John Moolenaar, the chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, praised the proposed deal as “an important step” in transitioning ownership of the TikTok platform to American hands but he emphasized that “divestment was not the law’s only requirement.”

“The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm, as well as preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance,” Moolenaar said.

The Michigan Republican’s statement marks the first congressional effort to conduct oversight into the negotiations over TikTok, coming nearly two weeks after Chinese and American officials met in Spain to discuss a framework divestment deal for TikTok. Trump on Thursday signed an executive order providing support for the deal, and said Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to move forward with negotiations. read more