“We’ve have it handled…”
Gov. DeSantis said Florida has what it needs to clean up after Hurricane Helene and that the federal government should instead focus relief efforts on North Carolina. The Governor told Washington, “We have it handled.” DeSantis also announced that Florida was sending resources to North Carolina and Tennessee to address flood damage and conduct rescue missions. Out of the estimated 121 fatalities from the storm, 13 lost their lives in Florida.
ULA to fly Vulcan rocket Friday.
United Launch Alliance hopes to fly its new Vulcan Centaur rocket this Friday. It will be only the second time Vulcan has flown. The three hour launch window opens at 6AM Friday morning. The Vulcan will eventually replace ULA’s Atlas and Delta family of rockets. It was supposed to launch with the Sierra Space Dream Chaser spacecraft on its first flight to the space station, but Dream Chaser isn’t ready to fly yet. Instead Vulcan Centaur will send a dummy payload to deep space on an orbit of the sun.
FAA confirms halt to SpaceX launches.
Yesterday afternoon the FAA confirmed it is requiring an investigation into SpaceX’s launch Saturday from the Cape. The incident involved the Falcon 9 second stage landing outside of the designated hazard area. Before the FAA announcement, SpaceX stated that it wouldn’t resume launches until it understood the root cause for the issue. The grounding of the SpaceX fleet may impact several upcoming launches: This Friday SpaceX had planned another Starlink mission. And an asteroid mission for the European Space Agency was scheduled for October 7th, and NASA’s Europa Clipper to Jupiter was set for October 10th.
Judge denies challenge to state abortion webpage.
A trial judge in Tallahassee has tossed out a challenge to an anti-abortion webpage hosted by the state of Florida. The judge rejected the motion by the sponsor of the abortion amendment. The group, Floridians Protecting Freedom, objected to the DeSantis administration’s use of state resources against the ballot initiative.
STARCOM coming to Patrick Space Force Base.
The headquarters of the Space Force’s training group is coming to Brevard County. Dozens of STARCOM guardians are at Patrick Space Force Base now to help establish the space-warfighting training hub. STARCOM will bring more than 450 military and civilian jobs to Patrick by late 2025.
September was drier than normal.
The National Weather Service in Melbourne has totaled up the rainfall for September across East Central Florida. Although cities like Vero Beach and Daytona Beach had about five more inches of rain than normal, Melbourne was drier than usual. Despite rainfall from Helene, Melbourne had almost two inches less rainfall than normal for the month.
Florida Surf Museum to celebrate local successes.
The Florida Surf Museum is holding a celebration this Saturday evening. Members of the Space Coast BoardRiders Club and the Cocoa Beach High Surf Team will be honored for their awards over the past year.
Attention Parrot Heads!
Starting today, Margaritaville specialty license plates will go on sale in Florida. Well, presale. You won't actually get one until enough of them are sold. Jimmy Buffet was honored in a couple ways this year. In August, state road A1A was renamed Jimmy Buffet Memorial Highway. And as of October 1st, the new Margaritaville specialty license plate is authorized. Fees from the sale of the plate will go to Buffet’s Singing for Change charity. The Margaritaville license plate costs $25 per year on top of your normal registration fee. And the state needs to get at least 3,000 orders before the plates are manufactured.
