Tropical Storm Elsa is making landfall along the North Florida gulf coast Wednesday, bringing along heavy rainfall and strong winds per the National Hurricane Center.
State of play: Elsa weakened from a marginal Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm early Wednesday, but hurricane force winds remain a possibility.
Richard Branson is scheduled to blast off this Sunday on a test flight for Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company that went public in 2019 via SPAC, beating Jeff Bezos to sub-orbit by just nine days.
Why it matters: There's a lot more riding on these rockets than rival billionaires.
Heavy rains and gusty winds were spreading inland across southwest and west-central Florida as Elsa weakened to a still-dangerous tropical storm early Wenesday, per the National Hurricane Center.
State of play: Elsa was 60 miles west of Tampa, Florida, packing maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in its 2a.m. ET advisory. A tornado watch was issued for several areas of the state.
Fifty-one percent of Americans believe UFOs reported by military personnel are likely evidence of intelligent alien life, according to a new poll released by Pew last week.
Why it matters: Questions about whether smart aliens have come to visit Earth have been asked for decades, and these results show that curiosity — which can sometimes verge into conspiracy theory — persists.
When Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson take flight aboard the rockets their companies built, the hopes and dreams of a burgeoning industry will be flying with them as well.
Why it matters: Accidents or errors on these high-profile flights from Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin could derail their plans — and possibly affect others' plans — for commercial space tourism and travel.
Conditions were deteriorating across the Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Elsa moved over the Florida Straits early Tuesday after unleashing heavy rains on Cuba, per the National Hurricane Center.
Details: The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 60 mph 60 miles south-southwest of Key West at 2a.m. on Tuesday, according to the NHC.
