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Seth Kurkowski

SethKurk

Managing Editor at Space Explored

Seth Kurkowski covers launches and general space news for Space Explored. He has been following launches from Florida since 2018.

Seth’s first launch was SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Demo in February of 2018 and has been hooked on them ever since.

He also helped start Space Coast Launch Ambassadors, an outreach group advocating for space exploration while helping the general public enjoy rocket launches from the Space Coast.

Seth co-hosts the Space Explored weekly podcast as well as the Rapid Unscheduled Discussions podcast both of which you can listen to here on SpaceExplored.com

Email tips, pitches, typos, and feedback to kurk@spaceexplored.com.

Follow: Twitter @SethKurk + Instagram @sethkurk.

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Launch Spotlight: Arianespace to launch NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on an Ariane 5 rocket

This weekend Arianespace will be entrusted to launch NASA’s most expensive and new flagship space telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope launch will be one of the biggest butt-puckering events of Webb’s deployment. The feeling will stay for the following months as the rest of the systems come online and parts of the telescope attempt to deploy. Learn everything about the launch below.

Launch Date: Saturday, December 25, 7:20 a.m. EST

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Launch Spotlight: SpaceX to launch 24th resupply mission to the International Space Station

This week SpaceX is preparing for its next mission to space, this time a cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s CRS-24 will launch the company’s Dragon 2 spacecraft to the ISS and take additional food, experiments, and other supplies to the current crew. Two notable studies will be a protein crystal growth study for possible future cancer treatments drugs and a handheld bioprinter that could one day heal wounds.

Date: Tuesday, December 21, 5:06 a.m. EST

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Launch Spotlight: SpaceX launching Türksat 5B on a Falcon 9 rocket

Less than 24 hours since its most recent launch, SpaceX is preparing to launch Türksat 5B from one of its launch sites in Florida. Operated by Türksat A.Ş., the satellite will sit in geostationary orbit and service parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa with direct TV and telecommunications. This will mark SpaceX’s 30th launch of 2021.

Launch Date: Saturday, December 18, 10:58 p.m. EST

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Launch Thread: SpaceX to launch NASA’s newest observatory [U: Payload deployment]

NASA‘s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) will launch this week on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Initially, it was assigned to fly on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket, but it was moved to SpaceX to save on launch costs. IXPE’s three identical telescopes will study the polarization of cosmic X-rays. Its mission will be to map out the magnetic fields of black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, supernova remnants, magnetars, quasars, and active galactic nuclei. The total cost of IXPE and its two-year planned mission is $188 million.

Launch Date: Thursday, December 9, 1:00 – 2:30 a.m. EST

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