NASA loses 5% of its workforce.
NASA reports that about 5% of its workforce has accepted to buyouts. NASA may avoid the sweeping layoffs seen by other federal agencies, but 900 employees are accepting the deferred resignation plan offered by the White House. The Kennedy Space Center has more than 2,100 civil employees working for NASA, but did not specify where job losses will occur.
Meanwhile, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free suddenly resigned, effective last Saturday. Free had been a strong advocate for the Artemis missions, and urged the Trump administration not to make major changes to the program. Free’s retirement adds more uncertainty over NASA's direction as Elon Musk has long envisioned crewed missions to Mars.
IM-2 Mission to the Moon.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch a lunar lander this week. The spacecraft from Intuitive Machines will launch on a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than Wednesday. The objective is to place the lander near a crater at the south pole of the moon where a drill and mass spectrometer will look for the presence of lunar water ice. During the mission, a second vehicle, a standalone hopper lander, will explore difficult-to-reach areas in search of lunar ice.
In addition, there’s a rideshare payload on the Falcon 9. A private company, AstroForge, is aiming a spacecraft toward an near-earth asteroid in deep space. The goal is to see if it’s possible to mine precious metals from an asteroid.
Plus a NASA lunar orbiter is also hitching a ride on this week’s launch. The NASA Lunar Trailblazer is designed to provide new insights into the lunar water cycle.
Brevard Public Schools re-starts book review committee.
The Brevard Public Schools book review committee is set to resume in March. The process to help decide which books will be permanently banned from district shelves was halted six months ago. On March 12, the committee will review three novels. But it’s not clear who will be on the committee. Committee members must be appointed by school board members, with each board member appointing one member. The review committee reads books about which community members have submitted formal complaints and gives the school board a recommendation on whether or not to keep, restrict or fully ban the titles. Ultimately, the decision is up to the board, who votes on reviewed books at subsequent board meetings. Records obtained by FLORIDA TODAY from the last school year showed 169 books were permanently pulled from shelves.
Trump guides Florida gubernatorial election.
The next election for Governor of Florida isn’t until 2026, but more than a few candidates were eyeing the position. That is until President Trump endorsed Naples-area US Representative Byron Donalds last Thursday. Since 2018, Trump has endorsed in nearly 700 Republican primary races, and his preferred candidates won about 95% of those races. Trump praised Byron Donalds for his positions on immigration, the military, the economy and gun rights. His endorsement will make it more difficult for other potential candidates for Florida Governor, like Matt Gaetz and Casey DeSantis, to gain much traction.
Florida insurance companies sent billions to affiliates.
While Florida insurers claimed to be losing money in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Michael, their parent companies were making billions of dollars. According to a study obtained by the Miami Herald, Florida insurance companies sent billions of dollars to their affiliates, while crying poor from hurricane losses.
