After a back-to-back scrub, followed by a rare T-0 abort on June 14, Space X will try once again to launch the Starlink 10-2 mission.

SpaceX is aiming for a liftoff time of 1:15 p.m. EDT on Sunday, yet the launch window runs until 5:01 p.m. if needed.

When is the next Florida rocket launch? Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule in Florida

SpaceX launch delay from Florida

This is the mission that resulted in an unusual scrub for SpaceX. After the Falcon 9 engines ignited on June 14, spectators watched as nothing happened with the rocket. The clock was at T-0, yet the rocket was still on the pad. There had been an abort − something of a rarity for SpaceX.

SpaceX did not give an official answer about what happened to this Starlink mission. However, the company’s VP of launch, Kiko Dontchev, took to X the following evening with a statement that the rocket had experienced a hardware issue. SpaceX decided to take the troubled Falcon 9 off Space Launch Complex 40 to get German TV satellite Astra 1P to the pad. But then weather got in the way of that launch.

Finally, on Thursday, Astra 1P rocketed off Space Launch Complex 40, ending an almost two-week launch drought on the Space Coast.

The launch drought wasn’t due to just weather and technical issues. With SpaceX only having access to Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A and Space Launch Complex 40, this made for a bit of a rocket traffic jam as teams were already preparing to raise a Falcon Heavy rocket on Pad 39A.

The payload of that triple-core Falcon Heavy is the GOES-U weather satellite, which is set to liftoff as soon as 5:16 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.

SpaceX upcoming rocket launches from Florida

Before we see GOES-U carried to orbit on a Falcon Heavy, SpaceX has plans to get this Starlink 10-2 off from Launch Complex 40. If SpaceX cannot launch during Sunday’s window, a backup opportunity exists on Monday beginning at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

Being from the Starlink Group 10, this Falcon 9 will be launching into the northeast.

Follow the FLORIDA TODAY Space Team for the latest space news from the Space Coast.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A controversial bill that creates a kind of “stand your ground” defense for shooting Florida Black Bears on their property is now a law, along with a bill to make it tougher to file ethics complaints and 12 other bills signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis Friday night.

DeSantis signed HB 87, Taking of Bears, which allows people to claim self-defense in shooting a bear on their property.

Shooters will have to notify the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission of bears being killed within 24 hours of the shooting, and they cannot keep or sell bear carcasses.

North Florida lawmakers pushed the bill, saying they are overrun by bears in those counties. But critics said there were already efforts to manage the bear population and reduce human-bear encounters with the state’s BearWise program. The bill passed the Florida Legislature largely along party lines in both chambers.

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“Increasing the killing of Florida’s iconic black bears under the guise of self-defense –– without requiring proof of actual danger — poses serious public safety risks and undermines responsible wildlife management,” said Kate MacFall, Florida state director at the Humane Society of the United States, in a prepared statement.

The law will go into effect July 1.

DeSantis also signed SB 7014, a package of revisions to Florida ethics laws. Critics say the bill weakens ethics laws by limiting ethics investigations to those prompted by only people with “personal knowledge” of an issue.

That blocks local and state ethics officials from starting investigations based on media reports, for instance. They would only be able to act if there is a valid complaint. Several government watchdog groups urged DeSantis to veto the bill, saying it raised the bar on ethics investigations too high.

Supporters said the bill stopped ethics complaints from being weaponized.

The bill, which is now in effect, also bars a member of the Florida Commission on Ethics from serving more than two full terms and makes changes to attorney rules and fees in ethics cases.

Another bill signed into law Friday was HB 21, which creates a compensation program for victims of abuse at the Dozier School for Boys and the Okeechobee School. It goes into effect on July 1. DeSantis also signed HB 23, which provides a public record exemption for those who seek compensation through the program.

Check out the other bills DeSantis signed Friday below:

• HB 1577 – Midway Fire District, Santa Rosa County
• CS/HB 6007 – Relief/Julia Perez/St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office
• HB 849 – Veterinary Practices
• HB 1575 – Avalon Beach-Mulat Fire Protection District, Santa Rosa County
• HB 1573 – Pace Fire Rescue District, Santa Rosa County

Information from The News Service of Florida was used in this report.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis has approved a measure that will finally provide reparations for hundreds of men who as children were beaten and raped for decades while in the custody of the state.

The law (HB 21) signed by the governor on Friday morning will divide $20 million in compensation between those who attended the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in North Florida between 1940 and 1975, as well as the Okeechobee School, another state-based institution known for its abusive nature.

According to a bill analysis, there were reports of children being chained to walls in irons, brutal whippings, and peonage at Dozier as early as 1901. In the first 13 years of operation, six state-led investigations took place. After former Dozier School students began to publish accounts of the abuse, their complaints gained traction.

Ultimately, then-Gov. Charlie Crist in 2008 directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the Dozier School and the deaths alleged there.

Meanwhile, the school was closed following a federal investigation in 2011 and lawmakers gave a formal apology to the survivors in 2017.

Over those years, some of the still-living victims of rape and physical beatings by officers repeatedly made their way to Tallahassee to tell state lawmakers about the horrors suffered at those state-run institutions. They’ve been dubbed “the White House Boys” for the building on the Dozier campus in Marianna where boys were — among other abuse — beaten with a leather strap attached to a wooden handle.

Retired Army Ranger Capt. Bryant Middleton was one of those victims who made the trek to Tallahassee for years. Earlier this year, he told a state Senate committee not to think of him as the man in his late 70s, but as a young boy decades ago, when he and other boys endured abuse at the Dozier School.

“I would ask you: If it were your child that came home from school, your child said to you, ‘They took me to a room and beat me with a paddle.’ Your daughter comes home and says, ‘They took me into a room and they did something to me that made me uncomfortable.’ That’s what we endured,” he said.

“We were children”

“We were children.  Don’t look at me as an adult. Think of me as a young child being beaten and molested and tormented, day in and day out. That’s what the school was really about. The beatings? We got over those. Those children that were raped at the age 6 and 7 and 8 — I don’t think they over got over that.”

Somewhat surprisingly, the governor’s office invited no news reporters or cameras to the bill signing, although about 15 of the men who have regularly visited the Legislature to lobby for the measure were there, along with the legislators who sponsored the measure — St. Petersburg state Sen. Darryl Rouson and House Republicans Michele Salzman from the Panhandle area and Kiyan Michael from Jacksonville.

“It came down to a crunch, you know, the final tranche of bills, and I know he has a very busy schedule,” Rouson said. “The important thing was to get it signed, and that’s what happened.”

The bill is set to go into effect on July 1. Applications for individuals eligible for compensation will go to the state Department of Legal Affairs, which will review and approve or deny applications.

Applications accepted through year’s end

The law says that only those who were confined to the Dozier School for Boys or the Okeechobee School between 1940 and 1975 are eligible; personal representatives or estates of those who attended the school but have died “may not file an application for or receive compensation” the law says. Applications will be accepted until Dec. 31 of this year.

Although it has been frequently mentioned that there are approximately 400 living survivors of the two institutions who are eligible to be compensated, one of the survivors, 80-year-old Tampa resident Gene Luker, told the Phoenix after the measure passed in the Florida Senate in March that he believes that far fewer than that are still alive.

“I don’t believe that,” he said at the time of the higher number. “I think if there’s around 100-150 from that time limit” — although he joked that more might “come out of the woodwork” now that it looks more possible than ever that the living victims will receive financial compensation.

After the measure passed out of a Senate committee in March, Broward County Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood approached one of the men who testified for the legislation.

“I’m deeply sorry for what happened to you,” Osgood said. “I know that no amount of money or no words can take away your pain, but I do want to tell you this morning that I love you. I love you. And I pray in the days to come that you will have at least a sense of peace and knowing that we care, and that we are doing the best we can to acknowledge that.”

Rouson has been pushing for the living victims at Dozier to be compensated for years. He said on Friday that he was “elated” after the governor signed the bill.

“It’s a poignant moment,” he said. “You can’t do anything about the 55 unmarked graves — individuals who we may never know. But we can do something about those still living, and who witnessed the trauma of beatings, disappearances, and injuries, both psychological and physical. It’s significant for them, and that’s why they showed up today.”