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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.

Connect with Seth Kurkowski

For the first time, two SpaceX boosters stand vertical in Port Canaveral

In the last 2 weeks, SpaceX has launched 3 Starlink missions with a total of 180 satellites deployed into low Earth orbit. SpaceX has been increasing its launch cadence all year, pushing what some thought was possible. With increased operations at the port to get the just received droneship back out to sea, SpaceX churned out Starlink missions like they were routine.

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Russia selects first candidate to likely fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon

During the Shuttle era, NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos worked out a deal to trade seats between the Shuttle and the Russian Soyuz capsule. When the Shuttle retired this deal went away and NASA had to now pay for each seat it was going to take up until NASA could get its Commerical Crew Program up and running.

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[Update: Test Window Announced] Artemis I booster stacking is now complete; Awaits first Core Stage

Over the last few years, the pieces of NASA’s Artemis I mission have slowly been making their way to Kennedy Space Center for final checkouts and stacking. For the past couple of months, NASA has been preparing to receive the final parts of the rocket with the first step towards a fully stacked SLS finishing the other day.

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[Update: Launched!] SpaceX to launch their 22nd batch of Starlink satellites

On the heels of their last launch earlier this week, SpaceX is already planning to launch their next batch of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit as soon as this weekend. Starlink will provide worldwide high-speed internet through the use of thousands of satellites in low earth orbit.

Date: Sunday, March 14th, 6:01 AM EDT

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Space Explored Podcast 15: Peter Beck eats his hat over ‘Bigger Rocket’ development, New Glenn pushed back, Starship SN10 launch soon, and more

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This week join Space Explored’s Seth Kurkowski and Jared Base as they discuss Rocket Lab’s new rocket in development, concerns following New Glenn’s additional delay, updates on Starship, and more.

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Unistellar is working to put on the largest Messier Marathon event and they want you to join

Unistellar, the company behind the eVscope smart telescope is putting on a Messier Marathon that they hope will break the record for the largest event of its kind. The event will be full of amateur and professional astronomers gazing at the sky to find as many Messier objects as they can and will include a week of outreach events to get more people into astronomy.

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Rocket Lab to enter new launch markets with the announcement of a new medium-lift rocket

The launch provider that has made themselves famous for launching dedicated missions for SmallSats on their Electron rocket is moving up to a new market. In a video Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck announced they are building a medium-class launch vehicle that will be able to launch not just heavier and larger satellites but also in the future crew.

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[Update: second static fire] Starship SN10: First static fire of test campaign followed by a swap of one of the engines

After a relatively quiet week at SpaceX’s Starship facility in Boca Chica, Texas we finally got to see Starship SN10 come to life for a quick static fire on Test Stand A. The vehicle has been out on the pad for about a month now, being moved from the manufactory facility while SN9 was still on Test Stand B.

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Spaceflight Inc celebrating 10 years of operations, from lobbying for payload space to dedicated rideshare missions

Spaceflight Inc has been the go-to company for getting your payload into space for the past 10 years. They went from a scrappy start-up trying to find excess space in missions to fly their customers to launching dedicated rideshare missions tailored for their customers. We were able to speak with their CEO, Curt Blake, and learn more about how they operate.

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Space Explored Podcast 14: Perseverance lands on Mars, Inspiration4 gets its first crewmate, and Starship SN10 gets back into action

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Join Space Explored’s Seth Kurkowski and Jared Base this week as they discuss NASA landing its newest rover on the surface of Mars, the newest crewmate to join the Inspiration4 mission to space, and an update to Starship progress in Boca Chica.

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Reddit users decode hidden message left on Perseverance’s parachute

After yesterday’s mind-blowing Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) video reveal and dump of raw images for the public to gloss over, some have been looking closer at the pattern used on the parachute. While most parachutes use special designs, JPL has been know to hide secret messages all around their spacecraft and in less than a day Redditors decoded it.

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