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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


SpaceX successfully launches a previously flown first stage

The competition heats up: SpaceX has successfully launched a commercial satellite using a previously flown first stage.

Even more important, they landed that first stage on a barge, and can even consider using it again!

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

10 comments

  • jburn

    Wow! Incredible….

  • Des

    Fantastic job by the great team at Spacex. They have proven all the many doubters wrong.

  • Robert Pratt

    Capitalism in Space baby!!!!

  • Alex

    Please, no repainted first stage next time.

  • pzatchok

    This is a sad sad day for American Space.

    We have been reduced to using a USED first stage. We can not even afford new rockets anymore.

    I hope this doesn’t make the world news. This is SOO embarrassing. What will the other nations think of us?

    Just imagine all the good union jobs lost because we couldn’t use a new rocket. I think we need a law forcing everyone to use new rockets for all launches inside the US and make sure they use only union labor for all the work. In order to keep all those launch companies in the US we should offer them subsidies. Enough to make it worth their while to stay.
    It will save the US money, jobs and bring in more taxes.

    Or we could just loudly chant USA USA USA and say screw it to all the other jealous nations of the world.

  • Commodude

    D.D. Harriman lives.

  • wayne

    pzatchok–
    Good stuff.
    Just think of the children….if we could save just one, it would be all worth it…

    First World Problems
    https://youtu.be/vN2WzQzxuoA
    (1:56)

  • Gealon

    Was tense watching it last night when the video on the barge cut out. But the people erupting into cheers a few moments later told me everything was golden even before the feed came back. I wonder now if SpaceX will indeed start naming their boosters in the future.

  • ken anthony

    I wonder if used rocket salesmen will wear cheap suits? …in the twilight zone!

  • Michael

    Commodude – agreed …. unfortunately so does Nehemiah Scudder

    pzatchok – great observation … thought occurs to me that we should tax all rockets that are reused because of the lost jobs

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