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The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance docked with the International Space Station just after midnight Sunday beginning the countdown for the return of a pair of Boeing Starliner astronauts that have been on board the station since last summer.

With the Crew-10 spacecraft and space station both traveling at 17,500 mph about 260 miles over the Atlantic Ocean, the final approach had Endurance moving at less than 4 inches per second.

It made initial contact with the station’s forward port of the Harmony module at 12:04 a.m. The four members of the mission are NASA astronaut and commander Anne McClain, NASA astronaut and pilot Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

“It was so amazing to see the ISS shining in the darkness of space,” said Onishi after docking. “We have a lot of exciting work ahead of us that we are looking forward to.”

Their arrival for now increases the space station population to 11 including Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived to the station on June 6, 2024 on Starliner as part of its Crew Flight Test, but have since been shifted to become members of Crew-9. read more

Many more individuals are now participating in 401(k) retirement plans than ever before.

New regulations have made it easier for companies to offer 401(k) plans. The current regulations allow companies to automatically establish 401(k) plans for their employees. When employers offer company matches as a percentage of the amount of employee contributions, it makes the 401(k) plan an attractive option for employees.

With a 401(k) plan, many employees would not have the advantage of being able to make tax-free contributions, receive an employer match, and be able to invest in a wide variety of equity and bond options, with dividends, interest and capital growth on a tax-deferred basis. With an employer match, the 401(k) option becomes very attractive.

As I pointed out recently, Congress has established regulations associated with various retirement plan options to allow employees the option of making some withdrawals from their plans penalty-free and still be able to maintain the retirement account, make additional contributions and receive tax-deferred benefits with the assets remaining in the account. read more

If SpaceX gets its way, the Space Coast will get a lot more rocket rumbles and sonic booms as the company increases Falcon 9 launches and builds out new landing pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center.

The Federal Aviation Administration released Friday a 116-page draft environment assessment for the first of those targeting Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40, where SpaceX wants to increase launches from 50 to 120 per year.

The assessment looks to set up SpaceX to proceed with its plans, although the agency rejected a proposal to build yet another new landing pad at Canaveral because of environmental concerns.

The FAA has partnered with the Air Force, Coast Guard and NASA for the assessment, while NASA is the lead agency for a second assessment expected this spring for KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A, where SpaceX wants to increase launches from 20 to 36, including up to five of its larger Falcon Heavy rockets each year.

The construction of a pair of new landing sites on the Space Coast would solve the company’s reliance on two landing pads at Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13 it will soon lose access to. That space has been set aside by the federal Space Force as the future launch site for two other commercial launch providers — Phantom Space and Vaya Space — although neither have yet to get a rocket into space. read more

The SpaceX Crew-10 mission launched from Kennedy Space Center on Friday sending a replacement crew to the International Space Station.

Riding in the Crew Dragon Endurance making its fourth trip to space were Crew-10 commander and NASA astronaut Anne McClain, fellow NASA astronaut and pilot Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

The launch marks the 16th human spaceflight for SpaceX’s fleet of four Crew Dragon spacecraft, having now taken 60 people to space.

It was the 22nd launch on the Space Coast in 2025 and first with a crew.

By Eliza Haverstock, NerdWallet

On Mar. 7, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to limit who can qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). It directs the Education Secretary to write a proposal removing PSLF eligibility for borrowers who work for organizations serving “a substantial illegal purpose.”

Despite the order’s strong language, at this point, no borrowers are at imminent risk of losing their eligibility for PSLF. The program forgives a borrower’s federal student loans after they make 10 year’s worth of payments while working in public service — as teachers, firefighters, police officers, healthcare workers, government workers and other nonprofit employees.

“You’re right to freak out, but if you take a beat and dig into what the executive order says right now, it’s just a directive to change the language [of PSLF] in the future,” says Stanley Tate, a lawyer who specializes in student debt. “How that actually plays out is yet to be written. When it does, there will surely be a response from different advocacy groups that are interested in protecting borrowers moving forward.” read more