Florida

World’s 1st female spacewalking team makes history

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The world’s first female spacewalking team is making history high above Earth.

NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir exited the International Space Station on Friday, the first time in a half-century of spacewalking that a woman floated out without a male crewmate. Their job is to fix a broken part of the station’s solar power network.

NASA launches satellite to explore where air meets space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA launched a satellite on Thursday night to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space.

The satellite — called Icon, short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer — rocketed into orbit following a two-year delay. It was dropped from a plane flying over the Atlantic off the Florida coast.

Five seconds after the satellite’s release, the attached Pegasus rocket ignited, sending Icon on its way.

A year after Michael, Florida community still in crisis

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A year after Hurricane Michael , the Florida county hardest hit by the Category 5 storm is still in crisis: Thousands in Bay County are homeless, medical care and housing are at a premium, domestic violence has become a problem and severely diminished mental health services are overwhelmed with backlogs.

Discovery of 20 new moons puts Saturn ahead of Jupiter

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The solar system has a new winner in the moon department.

Twenty new moons have been found around Saturn, giving the ringed planet a total of 82, scientists said Monday. That beats Jupiter and its 79 moons.

“It was fun to find that Saturn is the true moon king,” said astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Humberto brushes Bermuda as new hurricane threatens Mexico

MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Humberto lashed Bermuda with strong winds Wednesday as the powerful Category 3 storm passed just to the north of the British Atlantic territory, while a newly formed hurricane threatened tourist resorts along Mexico’s Pacific coast.

The hurricane came within about 75 miles (120 kilometers) of Bermuda before moving away out toward open waters late Wednesday.

Police: DNA links Florida man to ‘serial’ slayings of women

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Three women shot in the head, each dumped a month a part — the 2006 killings scared Daytona Beach’s street people so badly that they memorized suspicious men’s license plate numbers and gave them to police. And then suddenly the slayings stopped.

Forecasters warn of US coast rip currents caused by Humberto

MIAMI (AP) — Beachgoers on the southeastern U.S. coast should be wary of potentially dangerous rip currents caused by Hurricane Humberto, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.

Late Sunday, Humberto strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). The storm was about 785 miles (1,260 kilometers) west of Bermuda and moving northeast at 3 mph (5 kph).

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Humberto will bring large swells to the northwestern Bahamas and southeastern U.S. coast for several days.

Water, temperature right for life at another star’s planet

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — In a tantalizing first, scientists have discovered water at a planet outside our solar system that has temperatures suitable for life.

Two research groups announced this week that they’ve found water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet 110 light-years away in the constellation Leo. This so-called Super Earth is just the right distance from its star to conceivably harbor life.

5 people stabbed in Tallahassee, suspect in custody

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man ordered to leave a construction-supply business after quarreling with co-workers returned minutes later and stabbed five employees Wednesday in Florida’s capital, seriously wounding one of them, authorities said.

Police in Tallahassee were still trying to determine what set off the suspect and prompted him to pull out a pocketknife and stab co-workers before fleeing the workplace on foot. They identified the suspect as Antwann Brown, 41.

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